Gwangju City News

Reprinted with permission from Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall

Gwangju to Have First Indoor Playground for Disabled Children

Gwangju Metropolitan City and Save the Children (international relief and development NGO) have completed the nation's first playground for children with disabilities in the interior of the Gwangju Community Rehabilitation Center and the Gwangsan-gu Welfare Center for the Disabled to promote the healthy development of children with disabilities and the right to play.

At the completion ceremony held at the Municipal Welfare Center for the Disabled on November 19, Kim Kwanghwi, director-general of the Planning and Coordination Office; Chung Tae-young, secretary-general of Save the Children; and Kim Mi-ran, director-general of the Gwangju Community Rehabilitation Center participated.

As for the playground for children with disabilities, Save the Children signed a business agreement with Gwangju City Hall on April 20 and provided the entire project cost (153 million won per institution, total 306 million won) to the Gwangju Community Rehabilitation Center and the Gwangsan-gu Welfare Center for the Disabled.

The play area consists of a video movie facility, a trampoline, climbing, net play, and block play, which are based on ICT (information communication technology) that provides emotional stability and enjoyment for disabled children.

The project is all the more meaningful as it was created through an online survey (182 people) for children and guardians from May through July this year, five workshops involving disabled welfare officials and parents of disabled children, and a public contest for names of amusement parks (82 entries) were conducted by Save the Children.

The city’s general welfare center for the disabled, "La La Dream Site," means a playground where people can play and dream, and the welfare center for the disabled in Gwangsan-gu is a space for children to grow up well while playing and resting.

“Creating a play area for disabled children is a project that reflects the opinions of parents of disabled children and their right to play in a stable playing environment,” said Kim Kwang-hwi, head of the city’s Planning and Coordination Office. “We hope that this play space will help disabled children in the region play more freely and grow healthfully.”

Gwangju to Select 5G Open Test Lab Project

Gwangju City Hall announced that it was finally selected as a Honam-based operator in the 5G Open Test Lab Operation contest, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and by the National Information Society Agency.

The 5G open test lab operation business is a project to create a 5G (5th generation mobile communication) environment and to establish both a government office network mobilization test room and a 5G optical component test room, as well as a 5G convergence service for small and medium-sized ventures and start-up companies in the Honam area (i.e., the Jeolla Provinces). It will serve as an outpost to support all commercialization-related processes.

Gwangju City is equipped with the optimal environment for using open test labs through collaboration with KOREN (the National R&D Network) already established in the Honam Regional Research Center of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, and the Daejeon and Pangyo bases.

This project will invest 3.6 billion won in national expenditure to build a 5G open test lab at the Honam Research Center at the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, and support commercialization by creating a 5G test network for local companies in such areas as optical communication parts and content development.

So far, Gwangju City has secured a total of 14.4 billion won in state funds from the government’s digital New Deal public offering project, 1.8 billion won in quantum information and communication, 9 billion won in MEC-based 5G convergence services, and 3.6 billion won for the construction and operation of the 5G open test lab.

Based on this, Gwangju City is also planning to steadily prepare public offering projects for quantum information communication and 5G convergence services, and provide a foothold for the realization of Gwangju as a leading ICT-based city in 2021.

“In order for Gwangju to become a representative city that leads the convergence industry in 5G and artificial intelligence, a test bed that can test, verify, and support 5G convergence services and equipment 5

is essential,” said Sohn Kyung-jong, director of the city’s Artificial Intelligence Industry Bureau. “With the successive selection of digital New Deal public offering projects, we have established a foundation to become a leading city in the global 5G industry by strengthening the competitiveness of local companies and creating new convergence services."

Gwangju Wins Korea

Internet Communication Award

Gwangju Metropolitan City has won the grand prize in the regional tourism category at the 13th Korea Internet Communication Awards held in Seoul on November 11. Organized by the Korea Internet Communication Association and sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Korea Communications Commission, the Korea Internet Communication Awards are given to companies or public institutions that have shown excellent results in communication with customers through the internet communication index, the content competitiveness index, expert evaluation, and operational evaluation.

Selection criteria is based on excellent results in smooth communication with customers determined by conducting quantitative evaluation, such as customer response and customer utility, based on a survey method and a big data method for public institutions and companies. Gwangju City was evaluated to have served as a tour guide for Gwangju travel by providing vivid on-site information on the tourist blog “Omae Gwangju” for recommended touring courses, gourmet restaurants/cafes, and festivals/ experiences. In addition, information using the cute and familiar tourism mascot, Ohmena, was uploaded every week to induce steady visits by users and to showcase differentiated content reflecting brand characteristics such as timely events and viral videos.

Especially this year, amid the difficulties of traveling due to COVID-19, it has gained favorable reviews for introducing content in a non-face-to-face manner, such as through “7 Untact Destinations in Gwangju Introduced by Ohmena.” Through Ohmena, which was developed in a contest held for the entire nation, various communication attempts have been made to promote social networking services (SNS) as well as develop various goods and spread information about Gwangju throughout Korea, including to its international community.