Seoul civil servants with 20 years of experience to design “Future Seoul” themselves

[Financial News]  Senior officials who have spent more than 20 years working on the front lines of policy in Seoul will take the podium themselves to present strategies for the city’s future five and 10 years from now. The aim is to have bureau- and office-chief-level officials join a lecture program that has focused on hearing insights from outside experts, sharing their on-the-ground experience across the organization and strengthening policy implementation. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 7th that it is expanding the “Future Seoul Morning Lecture” program to include in-house experts and will begin lectures by officials at bureau- and office-chief level.
The lecture series, which began in May 2021, held its 120th session that day. It has featured domestic and international experts, including psychiatrist Dr. Oh Eun-young, economics YouTuber Shuka, and American sociologist Sam Richards. Going forward, bureau and office chiefs will also forecast mid- to long-term changes in their respective fields and directly propose policy tasks for Seoul to prepare for.
The first speaker is Yeo Jang-kwon, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Transportation Office. At 7:30 a.m. that day, Yeo will give a lecture at the main building of Seoul City Hall titled “The Future of Autonomous Driving: What Should Seoul’s Transportation System Prepare For?” He will examine how the commercialization of autonomous driving could change how residents get around and affect urban spaces such as roads and parking areas, and outline the tasks Seoul’s transportation policy needs to address.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to continue holding lectures featuring bureau- and office-chief-level officials in key fields. Its aim is to share the expertise and policy plans accumulated by each department across the organization, strengthen collaboration among bureaus and offices, and turn those plans into actual policies.
Mayor Oh said, “It is time to develop the ‘Future Seoul Morning Lecture,’ which over the past five years has been filled with the wisdom and insights of outside experts, into a forum where Seoul Metropolitan Government officials themselves think about and design the city’s future. As sharing the visions held by each bureau and office and working together are important to the administration of the future, we will share the future of Seoul envisioned by bureau and office chiefs and make it a driving force for the city to become one of the world’s top three cities.”
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