“Hope for Regions, Happiness for Residents” 

On-site report on Korea Regional Hope Expo 2016

What shall my village and country look like in 10 years? There was a place to share the result of regional development policy and to plan the future. Korea Regional Hope Expo 2016 was held at KINTEX in Goyang city, Gyeonggi province from Sep. 28 to Oct. 1. This is on-site report on the Expo where visitors were provided with services of local governments in one place.

Fostering future industry through deregulation

#1. Gangwon province has broad land and high mountains, but doesn’t have enough hospitals. Therefore emergency patients can’t be sent to hospital in time. The biggest concern of inhabitants of Gangwon-do is “Medical care”. The prompt medical service must be the urgent problem of Gangwon province.

Gangwon-do offered ‘Smart Health Care’ in order to solve this problem. The main idea is to provide remote services to inhabitants of medical vulnerable areas through smartphones. Gangwon-do is lending customized medical devices to pregnant women and operating self-care application, which is the first try over the country.

#2. The test bed for developing ‘Self-driving vehicle’ was made in Daegu city. This city is suitable for developing self-driving vehicle, since it is the congested area of auto parts factories. Eco-friendly electric delivery truck ‘CALMATO’ was displayed in Promotion Hall. CALMATO will come into the market in November.

Hot issue of this Expo is definitely ‘Regulation-Free Zone’. The core content of ‘the special act on designation and operation of Regulation-Free Zone’ is to release the regulations to correlate with their characteristics of areas. The regulations of businesses, like remote medical service or self-driving vehicle which are restricted by government, are going to be released only in specific areas.

The special act of Regulation-Free Zone is pending in the National Assembly now. When this act is approved, the budget will be allocated and the businesses can be started. The Expo is full of blueprints of each city and province, preparing for Regulation-Free Zone. For example, Chungnam province has a strategy for fostering an industrial hub of solar-light and introduces new technology of solar-light companies. Jeju province has concentrated on high-tech sensors and genetic medicine.

Demonstration of policy for Regional Competitiveness Strength

The Expo was composed of many halls, such as the halls of 17 cities/provinces and Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development presenting the results of regional development, the halls of 12 ministries/authorities presenting the regional competitiveness strength, and special halls of excellent exports.

Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs ran a Promotion Hall under the theme of ‘DMZ, coexisting with nature, history and peace’. The walls of the hall was designed by maps and promotion videos of 10 borders, such as Ongjin, Ganghwa, Kimpo, Paju, Yeoncheon, Hwacheon, Yanggu, Inje, and Gosung. Visitors looked around Pyeonghwa Nurigil and examples of ecological villages attentively. Many youth and families visitors made inquiries about the Expo.

Visitors, looking around the exhibits without omission, got a special luck. That is no other than winning the local specialties or tourist information through quiz events. As soon as quiz event started, lots of visitors rushed to the Promotion Hall.

At special halls, they presented success stories of leading local changes and leap. Best practice was paper robot hybrid ‘KAMIBOT’, which was supported by Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center. KAMIBOT has attracted investment worth 20 billion won and also got a chance to expand into overseas markets. Moreover, plant growing system by LED, instead of solar light, attracted visitors’ attention.

In addition, there was ‘Talk concert : Dream, Hope and Job’ along with Sean, broadcaster and Um, Hong-Gil, climber, and so on. As one of the outdoor events of ‘Good Morning Food Truck Festival’, food competition was held. Besides, ‘Flea Market in green Goyang’ was opened and many residents bought and sold used items on October 1.

During the Expo, job fairs were held simultaneously in 17 regions across the country. Department of Industry has estimated that more than 860 companies participated and 33,000 job seekers visited.

Regional Hope Expo, started 10 years ago, has become event to show the direction of local governments over the years. That is to say, you can check the main topic of the year at the Expo. If so, what do you think the topic of this Expo is? I think, the answer is ‘Happiness’. Reginal Hope Expo will be continued until we will create a happy society all together by reducing the gap between urban and rural areas.