A mayor from South Korea is scheduled to deliver a speech at Stanford University in California on April 9 and April 14 sharing his story about normalizing the debt-stricken city, located south of Seoul.

Lee Jae-myeong, who took office as the mayor of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, in 2010, found that the city was saddled with official debt of 9 billion won ($8 million). Further, its de facto debt ― including the amount that was not included in the municipal financial statements ― reached 728.5 billion won.

His predecessor allegedly masterminded irregular spending of the city’s funds totaling 540 billion won for some behind-the-scenes projects.

Lee had to declare a moratorium of the city several weeks after his inauguration as the mayor, prioritizing improvement of the municipal financial status. After painstaking efforts, Seongnam saw its outstanding debt decline to 146.9 billion won at the end of 2013.

Lee, who was reelected in June 2014, is implementing a variety of innovative policies on the basis of the city’s normalization in terms of financial soundness.

Aside from the story of overcoming the moratorium era, the scheduled lectures at the U.S. college will involve the municipal office’s know-how on attracting prospective enterprises and venture start-ups to the city, which is called the silicon valley of Korea.

In particular, the city’s welfare policy is drawing wide attention among other cities and provinces nationwide, as the mayor has clarified that Seongnam City would prepare the budget for basic welfare programs not by increasing taxes but by saving funds by eliminating corruption of civil servants.

Three major sectors of its welfare policy are post-pregnancy care system, eco-friendly free schools meals and free uniforms for middle school students.

The city has decided to provide mothers with free postnatal care services via public care centers, which marked the first of its case among local governments in the nation.

Starting in the second half of this year, the city will establish public postnatal care centers in three districts by 2018 and offer a two-week service to mothers irrespective of their financial standings.

At the care centers, experts look after newborns so that mothers can recover from childbirth easily. The system is also expected to help women get basic child care knowledge and skills in an effective, natural manner.

To those who choose to use private facilities or have postpartum care at home, the city will provide 500,000 won, and is planning to increase the amount to over 1 million won by 2018. The service may start as early as this July.

While some observers raised the possibility of a budget shortage, a city spokesman downplayed the worries. “While the total spending for the post-pregnancy centers is estimated at 37.6 billion won for four years (9.4 billion won per annum), it takes up only 0.4 percent of our yearly budget of 2.4 trillion won.”

For the free school meals scheme, the city started its support for environmentally-friendly agricultural products this month. While a province has announced its plan to suspend the free school meals at elementary schools, Seongnam’s decision to offer high-quality rice and other vegetables ― in addition to maintenance of the free meals ― is gaining more credibility among residents.

This year, the local government allocated 4.9 billion won out of 30.2 billion won in the budget for free school meals to buying eco-friendly ingredients.

It has been offering free schools meal services at 79 kindergartens, 69 elementary schools and 46 middle schools in its three districts of Bundang, Sujeong and Jungwon.

In addition, the city provided 600 middle school students from low-income households with free school uniforms earlier this year.

Lee has also taken the initiative to carry out a debt rescheduling program for residents, benchmarking the Rolling Jubilee in New York City in 2012 and similar initiatives in Iceland in 2008, which relieves individuals, who borrowed money at high interest rates from loan sharks, of the burden in coordination with social donation communities.

During his visit to the United States next month, he is also scheduled to meet municipal government officials and enterprise owners as well as give lectures to Stanford University students.

Born in 1964 in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Lee had worked as a lawyer, specialized in the human rights, and was a core member of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society after the passing the national judicial examination in 1986.

He also served as a member of then-main opposition Democratic Party, renamed the New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

Lee was one of the few who refused to become a “faithful servant” ― in the court or prosecutors’ office ― of the former Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo administrations, both of whom were from the military.

On the back of the geographic advantage of the city’s proximity to Seoul, Seongnam offers convenient transportation. It is the center of logistics with diverse potentials for development, and is also equipped with highly qualified human resources. Excellent residential areas and numerous culture centers also add attractiveness to the city. It ranks as a city with the most satisfactory living conditions.

It is one of the core cities in the metropolitan areas, within a 30-minute drive from downtown Seoul, and it is engaged in interchanges with six cities worldwide. The population of Seongnam City hovers around 970,000.

As it is equipped with high-tech industry complexes such as Pangyo Techno Valley, Yatap Valley and Uirye Medi-bio Valley, it is dubbed the “hub of Korea’s high-tech industries and research.”

The city is also putting in a variety of efforts to preserve the ecology, and it focuses on being an environmentally-friendly city where nature and human beings coexist in harmony.

Further, it is popular location for culture and arts, with various performances and exhibitions hosted all year-round.

At the Seongnam Culture & Arts Festival local arts groups and citizens form a harmony and various cultural events such as the Opening Ceremony, events for experiences, arts and photo exhibitions, music festivals, gugak festivals, plays and movie festivals are hosted.

Seongnam Folk Handicraft Festival aims to exhibit and pass down the knowledge of traditional folk handicraft to the next generations, and all are worth seeing.

Yuldong Park in Bundang-gu distict is the local government’s most famous park that enables families to enjoy outdoor activities such as bungee jumping against the backdrop of a beautiful lake and a wetland. The park also houses Book Theme Park which was built to encourage readings, to host exhibitions, performances and an International Book Art Fair annually.

Residents and visitors can appreciate the scenic beauty in Central Park every season, which is frequently used as a background set for films and soap operas.

The city is also proud of Seohyeon-dong & Jeongja-dong Cafe Street where people can enjoy food, cultural activities, exotic cafes, shopping and the dynamic night atmosphere of streets. Visitors to Moran Folk Market can experience many different traditions of Korea.

Seongnam is considered one of the best tourist cities in Korea as it offers a beautiful urban environment, an abundance of tourist attractions, a convenient subway and transportation system connecting Seoul to the surrounding cities.

As a new town in the metropolitan areas, it is growing as the cradle of IT & high-tech industries with its techno and business parks. Seongnam has great conditions, ideal for many industries. It is operating a networking system with local universities, providing comprehensive support of excellent human resources, finance, technology and distribution.

Officials noted that a group of research institutes as well as venture firms have relocated their headquarters to the city.

By Kim Yon-se and Park Joung-kyu
(kys@heraldcorp.com)(fob140@naver.com)