Incheon Love Citywide Citizens Network Marks First Anniversary… 133 Groups Join Hands for a ‘Greater Incheon’

The Incheon Love Citywide Citizens Network has marked one year since its launch. Incheon Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Chan-dae) held a first-anniversary commemorative workshop at the Harbor Park Hotel on September 16, organized by the Incheon Love Movement Center, sharing the achievements of pooling civic society’s capabilities to jointly respond to local issues.

[코리안투데이] First-anniversary commemorative workshop of the Incheon Love Citywide Citizens Network © 장형임 기자

Incheon Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Chan-dae) announced that it held a first-anniversary commemorative workshop for the Incheon Love Citywide Citizens Network at the Harbor Park Hotel on September 16. The event drew some 150 participants, including Mayor Park Chan-dae as well as representatives and members of the network’s participating organizations spanning civic groups, institutions, businesses and academia.

The citywide network was launched in June last year to bring together and jointly mobilize civic society’s capabilities in responding to the major issues facing Incheon. It has since established itself as a public-private-industry-academia cooperation platform involving 133 organizations across diverse fields, including civic society as well as industry, education and the media. Over the past year, it has broadened shared understanding of local issues and built a foundation for joint action through communication and cooperation among participating members.

The workshop was arranged as an occasion to look back on the network’s main activities and achievements since its launch and to reflect on the meaning of cooperation. In particular, it carried the aim of further strengthening a citywide cooperation framework for Incheon’s future in step with the new city administration of the 9th popularly elected government.

At the event, 17 organizations that contributed to the development of the local community and city administration and actively took part in the Incheon Love Movement were presented with commendations in recognition of their efforts. Participants then shared the message of ‘an Incheon united through Incheon Love’ through a joint performance, and pledged that each institution and organization would continue to communicate and cooperate to resolve local issues and advance Incheon’s future.

Mayor Park Chan-dae said, ‘If the varied experience and capabilities of the 133 participating organizations come together as one, we can not only resolve the issues Incheon faces but also create greater change that citizens can feel firsthand,’ adding, ‘We will broaden the scope of communication and cooperation so that citizens can take the lead in shaping Incheon’s future together.’ He went on to stress, ‘We will actively support the citywide network so that it can grow into a leading citizen cooperation platform where we contemplate and build Incheon’s future together.’

The network’s first year draws attention in that it has been a process of testing a cooperation model in which civic society participates as a principal actor, moving away from administration-led responses to local issues. A structure in which organizations from various fields gather in one place to discuss local problems together serves as a channel through which citizens can step forward as agents of resolution rather than remaining mere recipients of policy.

Incheon City plans to continue expanding exchanges and cooperation among participating institutions and organizations, centered on the citywide network and together with the Incheon Love Movement Center. It also plans to continuously create citywide movements and diverse forums for public deliberation on major local issues, further solidifying a cooperation framework in which citizens take a leading part.

지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화