YANGJU — The city of Yangju in Gyeonggi Province is stepping up efforts to identify policies aimed at structural reform across city administration and securing future growth engines, including fostering the defense industry and locally tailored technology commercialization. The push comes as the city accelerates a broad administrative overhaul that pairs frontline practice with expertise at the start of the ninth popularly elected local government term.
The city said on the 22nd that it held the second meeting of the Yangju City Innovation Advisory Committee for 2026 at a city hall conference room the previous day, where it presented final findings from policy research covering six core areas tied to pressing administrative issues.
About 40 people attended the meeting, the first held under the ninth local government term, including Yangju Mayor Chung Duck-young, advisory members and officials from relevant departments. Notably, the city revamped the public-private cooperation body by newly appointing five Yangju City Council members with extensive legislative experience, a move intended to strengthen policy implementation and grounding in local conditions.
The meeting unveiled research results from six subcommittees on topics the advisory committee selected as research projects in March this year, followed by lively discussion on how to translate the findings into effective administrative action.
The six research projects covered a defense industry growth strategy; the design and operation of a technology commercialization support system; monitoring research on the royal festival at the Hoeamsa Temple site; the establishment of an integrated addiction management support center; research on public-private cooperation business models to invigorate resident self-governance; and research on strengthening the organization and functions of the Yangju Urban Corporation. The focus was on drawing up concrete action plans that can be applied to city administration immediately rather than stopping at recommendations.
"Change and innovation in Yangju begin with practical and finely tuned policies that residents can feel directly in their daily lives," Chung said. "We will actively reflect these six policy research projects in our policies so they can serve as a solid catalyst for transforming the city's fundamentals and driving administrative innovation."
