Press

The 5th Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum\n\nOn the 27th of last month, the 5th 'Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum' was held at the National Policy Communication Space on the 1st floor of the Annex of the Seoul Government Complex on Sejongno, Seoul. The Open Communication Forum is the successor to 'Gwanghwamun 1st Street,' a policy proposal channel launched by the Moon Jae-in administration for communication with the public, and has been continuing theme-based policy discussions on topics such as children, recycling, and low birth rates and aging since May.\n\nThe forum, jointly hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Social Innovation Promotion Division and the Korea Institute of Public Administration, focused on 'The Role of Government and the Private Sector in Activating the Social Innovation Ecosystem, and Proposals.' Social innovators, researchers, and officials from central government agencies and local governments gathered to listen to presentations and engage in comprehensive discussions. Kim Yong-chan, director of the Social Innovation Promotion Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, opened the forum with opening remarks. Lee Jae-ho, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute of Public Administration, and Chung Sun-ae, Director of Seoul City NPO Support Center, presented on 'Social Innovation Ecosystem and New Governance' and 'Government Tasks for Activating the Social Innovation Ecosystem,' respectively.\n\nSenior Research Fellow Lee Jae-ho, who presented, explained, "Government innovation so far has been performance-focused innovation that transplanted the business model into government, and as a result, inequality has intensified and society has become more polarized." The research fellow presented three models of government governance for social innovation: ▲citizen-led government, ▲risk management government, and ▲shared value government. He stated, "The government must improve citizens' safety and quality of life through social value-centered operations, and if the government cannot create shared value in local communities, social innovation will remain merely a slogan."\n\nChung Sun-ae, the center director, proposed government roles while diagnosing government tasks for social innovation. Director Chung said, "The role of the central government is to consider and design how to share administrative authority and assets," and "It is not desirable for the government to try to meet citizens directly." She particularly emphasized, "If the government intervenes in the initial stage with huge budgets incorrectly, it can damage the flexibility and openness of the stage where ideas are created, thereby dispersing innovation." She stressed that the government should carefully plan the timing and method of intervention. She emphasized, "The government should actively adopt new private outsourcing partnership systems linked to social finance as an infrastructure builder."\n\nAfter the theme presentations, seven private experts put forward various proposals for activating the social innovation ecosystem. Kim Jung-heon, CEO of Underdogs; Choi Kyung-hee, Co-CEO of Tutoring; Kim Woo, Director of Sungmisan Good Day Cooperative; Cha Hwa-sook, CEO of Able Ceramist Association; Won Yong-sook, Senior Technology Officer at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute; Hwang Se-won, Research Director at LAB2050; and Jung Seo-hwa, Ph.D. at the Korea Institute of Public Administration (in order of presentation) shared their voices.\n\nProposals from Seven Private Experts for Activating the Social Innovation Ecosystem\n\nKim Jung-heon, CEO of Underdogs\n"Underdogs is the only domestic 'company building' company that creates social innovation companies. As a solution for incubating social innovation startups in the form of subsidiaries, we have created 5 companies in the form of subsidiaries and related companies over the past three years. While most social venture support is provided to those with established items or organizational forms, Underdogs focuses on individual social innovators, matching them with items and helping with actual business development. I hope the government will also consider support in the form of 'company building,' a new method in addition to incubating and accelerating."\n\nChoi Kyung-hee, Co-CEO of Tutoring\n"Large companies' employment is decreasing as a proportion of total workforce, and some have only increased resignations without new hiring. In contrast, startups like Baemin (Delivery the People) and Toss have continuously increased hiring to 500 and 140 people respectively. Rather than one company with the same DNA hiring 4,000 people, it is more innovative for 4,000 startups to each hire 1 person. The innovative culture of startups, where employees take leave to care for their dogs, use collaboration tools like Google Docs actively, and have no reporting or approval processes, is also a good way to work with millennials."\n\nKim Woo, Director of Sungmisan Good Day Cooperative\n"'Sungmisan Village' in Mapo-gu, Seoul is a network of relationships—a community centered on Seongsan-dong in Mapo-gu, including Manwon-dong, Sangam-dong, and Seongsan 2-dong. In the village, we dream of placing public parking lots at the village entrance and having people walk through the alleys, providing housing like Sungmisan Village's 'Sohaengju (housing with communication and happiness)' as rental housing so people can live happily without mortgaging the present. Small village shops like 'Little Tree,' 'Neighborhood Kitchen,' and 'Sungmisan Baeksan' have closed due to rising rents, so our dream is to have spaces without rent worries."\n\nCha Hwa-sook, CEO of Able Ceramist Association\n"The Able Ceramist Association created a job called 'disability-empathetic ceramic coaching' where ceramicists teach ceramics to people with disabilities, and received Seoul City support as a future new job category. In this process, to grant social value, we applied for private qualifications through the Korea Human Resources Development Service, but the processing process normally taking 3 months took 1 year and 4 months. We had to select the relevant ministry, but it was transferred between the Ministry of Health and Welfare for 'disability' and the Ministry of Education for 'coach' for 5 months, and it took another 5 months to remove confusing terminology. In the end, the final registered name became 'Empathetic Ceramic Expert.' I wish we could eliminate the process of wasting effort on such small matters."\n\nWon Yong-sook, Senior Technology Officer at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute\n"There is growing demand for science and technology to strengthen their public role and contribute to improving citizens' quality of life. R&D (research and development) fields, which were previously technology and supplier-oriented, are also changing to society-driven and user-centered models. Various citizens need to participate in R&D, but field researchers lack the capacity and resources to respond beyond research, and motivation is needed. Even when citizens share know-how, if they don't have a specific position, consultation fees cannot be set, and there is a need to improve the low proportion of Living Lab research project budgets—seminars where citizens meet and use technology to innovate life problems—in the overall research budget."\n