Seoul presents its policies for the most vulnerable at the mayors’ forum
The four-day World Cities Summit Mayors Forum ended today in the South Korean capital. Delegations from around the world attended the event with sustainable urban development at the centre of their discussions. For Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the forum provided him with an opportunity to show the results of his latest social welfare programmes to reduce inequalities.
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The World Cities Summit Mayors Forum, which ended today, brought to the South Korean capital of Seoul scores of mayors from some of the world's largest metropolises to discuss sustainable urban development, social inclusiveness, preservation of cultural heritage, and promotion of creativity and innovation.
The four-day meeting was centred on “Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Forging an Inclusive and Resilient Future”. It gave Seoul the opportunity to share the good practices that earned it the Lee Kuan Yew Award in 2018, before the pandemic.
The international prize is given every two years to the urban communities that best face the challenges of urbanisation in the world with "foresight, good governance and innovation” to bring "social, economic and environmental benefits" to the population.
Some 50 delegations from 30 different countries attended the summit, the largest international conference organised by South Korea since the COVID-19 outbreak.
For Seoul it provided above all a stage to present the results of two social welfare projects implemented in July 2022 to reduce economic and social inequalities among its residents.
The Seoul Safety Income Project gives cash benefits to 1,600 households who earn 85 per cent or less of the median income and hold assets under 326 million won (US2,000).
The project is set to end in the summer of 2025, but its impact will be monitored until the end of 2026. Based on the data collected so far, the metropolitan administration claims that the programme has produced results that set it apart because it encourages beneficiaries to work.
The "Seoul Learn" project offers free access to online lessons to children and young people between 6 and 24 who live in households with below-average incomes; the latter include many North Korean defectors and children of foreign families, often marginalised in Korean society.
According to data presented by the city administration, in just over a year, thanks to the programme, 461 students managed to enrol in university.
“If at least one person had their life changed through the Seoul Learn program, I believe the city’s budget was used for a valuable purpose,” said Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. “The city government will continuously invest to create a ladder for opportunities that could impact people’s lives,” he added.
The latest policies are "Wrist Doctor 9988", a programme to prevent chronic diseases through health data monitoring collected via smartwatches, and "Happy Parents", which focuses on expanding public childcare infrastructures and services to counter a low birth rate.
In all cases, these policies are meant to embody Mayor Oh’s slogan of “A Globally Attractive City, Going Together with the Socially Neglected”, whose aim is to reduce inequalities in Seoul's population by 2030 and attract more and more young people to the capital.
Last July, Mayor Oh, who was elected in April 2021 for a second time (he served between 2006 and 2011), was selected as a "Champion Mayor" by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in recognition of his leading role in mitigating inequality thanks to his policies of focusing on the vulnerable.
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