Yeonsu-gu Presents Incheon With Its ‘Proposal No. 1’ on Day One of Ninth Popular Election Term, Laying Out Eight Core Tasks

Incheon’s Yeonsu-gu District (Mayor Lee Jae-ho) on July 1, the opening day of the ninth popular election term, formally delivered to the Incheon Metropolitan Government its ‘Yeonsu-gu Proposal No. 1,’ which lays out the district’s key pending issues. By presenting metropolitan-level tasks to the city at the very start of his term, the mayor signaled his intent, in his first move, to swiftly build a cooperative relationship with the Incheon government.

[The Korean Today] Yeonsu-gu Mayor Lee Jae-ho heading to the Incheon Metropolitan Government with Yeonsu-gu Proposal No. 1 in hand © Reporter Kim Mi-hee

The delivery of the proposal is seen as a symbolic step that puts into action the promise made to residents of ‘uninterrupted development for Yeonsu.’ Yeonsu-gu said it intends to take a proactive and leading role in resolving, through close consultation with the city, long-standing metropolitan issues that have seen little progress over the years. Aimed at balanced development between the new and old urban areas and at securing future growth engines, the proposal contains eight core tasks.

First, the proposal includes pursuing the ‘creation of a separate Songdo-gu district’ to respond to rapidly rising administrative demand. Yeonsu-gu also identified the Incheon Port Authority’s (IPA) plan to relocate its headquarters to Jemulpo as a factor constraining the district’s growth potential, and called for the plan to be withdrawn.

In the transportation sector, the district requested the swift pursuit of wide-area transportation network projects, including the extension of Incheon Subway Line 1’s Section 8, the GTX-B, a KTX Songdo Station intermodal transfer center, and the Songdo tram. It also proposed a publicly led ‘Global AI Auto Valley’ as a way to resolve the inconvenience long endured by residents around the used-car export complex.

Other tasks on the list included normalizing the urban development and theme park project on the Songdo Daewoo Motor Sales site, which has been adrift for a long period; establishing the Incheon Bio Science and Technology Institute and attracting an Incheon public medical school to expand bio and medical infrastructure; raising the standard floor area ratio for aging planned-city maintenance projects to 300 percent or higher to improve the residential environment in the old urban area; and, in consideration of resident safety, reviewing the plan to open the Songdo Section 9 cargo parking lot and pursuing relocation to an alternative site. Yeonsu-gu defined these projects as major undertakings that will shape the district’s next 30 years.

The contents of the proposal largely align with the pledges the Incheon government has set out for its ninth popular election term, such as the establishment of Songdo-gu, the creation of a global AI hub, and the fostering of the bio industry. On this basis, Yeonsu-gu expects that the delivery of the proposal will not end as a one-off event but, through substantive consultation and coordination with the city, will lead to concrete results.

Mayor Lee Jae-ho said, “Starting with the delivery of Proposal No. 1 on the first day of the ninth popular election term, we will actively cooperate with the Incheon government to create change that residents can feel.” He added, “We will concentrate all our administrative capabilities so that the eight core tasks, which embody the will of Yeonsu-gu’s 440,000 residents, can be linked to the Incheon government’s major policies and lead to tangible results.”

Yeonsu-gu will also begin follow-up work to give concrete shape to the pledge items included in the proposal. Through procedures such as drawing up implementation plans for each department and gathering residents’ opinions, the district plans to finalize its pledge projects around this October and pick up the pace on their full-scale implementation.

[ Reporter Kim Mi-hee: incheonsouth@thekoreantoday.com ]

Become a Local Ambassador Apply as Branch Director The Korean Today — Nam-Incheon