4
Gwangju City News
Gwangju City and Local Medical Institutions Cooperate for Children
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
The key points of the agreement are (a) promoting understanding and cooperation for “making Gwangju a better place to have children,” (b) creating a pregnancy and childbirth-friendly environment, (c) promoting support policies for each life stage, and (d) sharing the integrated information platform Gwangju iKium.” To this end, Gwangju and the affiliated institutions are promoting the “making Gwangju a better place to raise children” policy by providing a comprehensive guide to support policies by providing life-cycle support policy guides to visitors to medical institutions and promoting information such as policy-promotion video screening. The agreement with local medical institutions directly related to pregnancy and childbirth is expected to further boost Gwangju’s policy of “making Gwangju a better place to raise children.” In order to strengthen the responsibility and public nature of care services, Gwangju City has announced a series of policies to create an improved environment in which to raise children “since July 2019 and has been pushing for six life-cycle support policies including meeting, marriage, pregnancy, birth, childcare, and work-life balance.” Meanwhile, Gwangju’s total fertility rate, which had continued to decline until last year, rebounded from January to March this year, up 6.8 percent from the same quarter of the previous year, as the city’s policy to overcome low birth rates has led to tangible results. This is the first increase in six years, and Gwangju is the only place where the total fertility rate increased in the first quarter of this year among the 17 major cities and provinces.
July 2021
MONTHLY NEWS
From the Gwangju Metropolitan City website (http://gwangju.go.kr)
The medical community, City Hall, and Gwangju City Council joined hands on the city’s key policy of “making Gwangju a better place to raise children.” Gwangju City Council President Park Yoohwan, Vice Chairman Oh Young-hyeon, Mizpia Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Director Lee Hyun-soo, and IFirst Children’s Hospital Pediatric Department Director Choi Chang-sun, on behalf of the departments of obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics in the city, signed a business agreement for mutual cooperation to make Gwangju a finer place to give birth to and raise children.
▲ Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong Sup (second from left) with local medical institution representatives after signing an ageement promoting Gwangju’s policy to make Gwangju a better place to raise children.
2021�07��.indd 4
Park Yoo-hwan, Chairman of the City Council, stated, “The decrease in the number of births is due to concerns about childcare and assistance. We ordered the expansion of childcare, care facilities, and related services, and if the community creates an unbiased culture of caring for pregnant women, the birth rate will increase.” Mayor Lee Yong Sup said, “Now we have to take the lead in solving the problem of low birthrates, and we all need to gather strength and wisdom to raise our children healthily and guarantee a sustainable future. We hope today’s agreement will be a driving force to build Gwangju into the center of Korea and lead the world.”
2021-06-24 �� 10:19:18
