United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Seogwipo city is in the southernmost part of Korean peninsula and it achieved impressive economic growth with its mandarin industry and tourism industry during 1980s to mid 2000s. However, the city entered into a recession with stagnant economy caused by the sluggish mandarin industry and the down fall of tourism industry, where it could not create added value anymore. In national level, the participation of citizens for politics and administration is ever expanding.

In order to meet the demands of the times by improving the quality of life and expanding the scale of citizens' participation, Seogwipo city needed to establish a new public-private partnership governance system that is free from the government-led policy making. At the same time, it was a strong demand from Korean citizens.

Korean citizen started to form a consensus demanding that they want a project with sustainable growth hence they can exert their full effort in. As a result, Seogwipo city promoted the Olle trails and the Global education city projects. The aim of Olle trail project was to provide decent trails for global citizen on an island that has been designated as an UNESCO biosphere reserve and at the same time it was registered as a world natural heritage. The development of the world prestige education city was caused by the continuous call for education innovation from the citizen and high level of education zeal among Korean students and their parents. Such enthusiasm for education is demonstrated in a figure, which shows that more than 300 students, 14.3% of total number of junior high school graduates are advancing into rather academic senior high schools in other regions of Korea.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In order to implement the public-private partnership governance, Seogwipo city established a horizontal network with flexible opportunities are given to both sectors and its stakeholder. Also they prepared very comprehensive and thorough strategies for their two core projects, development for walking trails and education policy. First, the project was carried out on the equal status of public and private sectors. The walking trails were named after Seogwipo area's cultural characteristic of 'Olle' and it was promoted by the public-private partnership governance. The sites for walking trails were carefully chosen on the criteria that the place has to be filled up with peace and happiness and left with untouched natural environment which could lead us to recognize the importance of environment. After a repetitive debates, the public-private partnership governance became even stronger during the process of establishment and execution of the new plans. This implementation provided a new opportunity to make changes to the notion of '...of the people, by the people and for the people' administration. Consequently, these changes enabled not only the improvements in the residents' confidence but also enhanced resident consciousness and administration reliability. Second, Seogwipo city established the public-private interactive web site to promote the mutual governance system. They created their own web site (http://www.seogwipo.go.kr/) and developed operated a new category where public and administration can communicate mutually within the same web site. These categories are called ‘Mayor's answer for your question' , 'Internet Sinmungo(complaint board)', 'Suggestion Bulletin Board' and 'Suggestion and Idea Palace'. Third, Seogwipo city endeavored for the local economic revitalization. Through the public-private partnership governance with Olle : a narrow pathway that connects the street to the front gate of a home.Jeju Olle Corporation, the number of tourist increased rapidly. When the Jeju Olle Corporation was first established in 2007, the number of tourists recoded 3,000 and 30,000 in 2008. In 2009, it reached to 251,000 and 746,000 in 2010 and finally in 2011, it is expected that the number will exceed over 1 million tourists. This rapid increase in tourists caused regional economy impact and earned 16,964 thousands US dollars, 50,265 thousands US dollars respectively in 2009 and 2010. This year the figure is expected to create 71,429 thousands US dollars and induce equivalent regional economic impact. Fourth, it provided a foothold for the world prestige education city. On the basis of the public-private partnership governance, the ‘Seogwipo city education improvement promotion committee' was founded last year. The committee is now its donation campaign to gather 8,929 thousands US dollars as a mean to improve the poor education environment in Jeju. For the last years, 4,100 people and gained 1.2 billion US dollars from local residents, enterprises and associations. In April 2011, the incorporated foundation of Seogwipo education was established to manage the administration of the education. Fifth, this project elevated the value of local brand. The success of local brand 'Jeju Olle' was reported in public and private broadcasting stations both in and out of Korea including KBS and MBC as well as newspaper companies. Wide reporting and advertisement of the Olle trail raised brand awareness.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Seogwipo city in Jeju special self-governing province in the republic of Korea has been implementing these projects with a policy direction in mind that ti should solve the compelling issues and raise the potential for growth by successfully sharing thoughts and seek cooperation with credibility. As a result, Seogwipo city searched for the most efficient ways by accepting public opinions and sought for experts' advises. The result was integrated into onen opinion that sustainable growth could only be achieved through the maximization of human resources in the public-private partnership governance. Hence, Seogwipo city assigned the public-private partnership governance as their top priority and pushed forward for the Jeju Olle Trail and world prestige global education city project. Seogwipo city and Jeju Olle Incorporation are work in partnership to manage and operate the Jeju Olle Trail project. The Jeju Olle Incorporation planned and designated Jeju Olle Trail courses and Seogwipo city installed the minimum conservation facilities including garbage bins in the courses. In February 2009, the city created a special department for sustainable tourist attraction(Sloe tourism promotion team) with 9 members. By launching this department, the city concentrated on raising the residents' income and supported the setting up of sisterhood for one the company for one village. The public-private partnership governance of Jeju Olle Trail gave an opportunity to understand it as one of their precious resource. A question was given to the residents and it was - "what is the most precious resource of Seogwipo city?" and most respondents answered it was the "Olle Trail “ The world prestige education project is managed in partnership of Seogwipo city and Seogwipo city education improvement forum. Although there has been a continuous demand made by the public for the improvements in educational environment, the immediate measures were ineffective and temporary. Therefore, Seogwipo city opened up the 'Creative city team' in August 2010 with five staff members and in November, Seogwipo city established the Seogwipo city education improvement forum with 38 members of public servants, teachers, parents and education experts. The forum succeeded in founding the partnership and strategies for workshops and public debate regarding the education policy in Jeju. Especially, the 'Seogwipo-si education development promotion committee' is mainly consists of nongovernmental delegates and it has been implementing the donation activity to raise 8,8929 thousands US dollars of education development fund to establish the self-regulating education environment. Also the foundation of 'Seogwipo-si education development fund' was initiated to set up the most suitable methods for fund raising and usage of the fund. As a result, the public-private partnership governance has an unique characteristic of functioning around these three pillars of specialized private organizations.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Through public-private partnership governance, Seogwipo city was enable to come up with idea that has sustainable developments and tried to disentangle the complicated issues. They found four ways to maximizes the impacts of their policies and implemented it. First, they promoted the two organization to make its own decisions. All decisions regarding Jeju Olle trails are made by the Jeju Olle Incorporated and it is independently making its own decision and push forward it. In the educational environment sector, the 'Seogwipo-si education development fund' has arranged the fund raising campaign and its specific management strategies as well. Second, the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city has developed many approachable and beneficial programs for its citizen. For example, Jeju Olle Incorporation is implementing profit-making programs such as the 'Sisterhood program for one company for Olle trail town' program, developing guest houses and promotion for each town in relation to the Seogwipo city. The Jeju Oll Incorporation is hosting various walking festivals and town festivals as a way of promotion. In the education sector, active promotion for various specialized programs such as reading club, essay writing class, self-directed learning and talent donating programs like science class, culture camp and future job expo. Third, the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city has vitalized its citizens' participation for their own community affairs. In terms of administration, processing time and budget demonstrated decrease through the corporation between private and public sector. Increased citizens' participation generated capacity building for new growth engine for the community and now it is successfully performing its role as a close partner for Seogwipo city. Fourth, It is the information on and offline of the internet. By using the website of Jeju Olle (www.jejuolle.org) they are providing information as well as constantly checking its customers opinions and recommendation and solve them immediately. Also the 'Seogwipo-si education development fund Incorporated. ' established its own web site(www.sgpedu.or.kr) and give information about its introduction about the committee, donation information, recent news reports and receiving citizen's opinions and application for donation.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The progress of the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city is as follows: (1) Collecting data from other regions → (2)Establishment of implementing organizations → (3)Promotion for citizens' participation → (4)profit-making for its citizen. The first step was collecting data from other regions. It was a difficult task for Jeju Oll Incorporation to come up with an idea to combine the data from other regions to Jeju. Jeju Olle Incorporation was founded by Myung-Sook Seo, who was born in Seogwipo city and established the Olle Trails from an idea that she gained from her own trip to the 800kilometers long Route of Santiago de Compostela in 2006. For the education development fund project, by collecting other cases in Finland and other countries Seogwipo gaines confidence that it could also succeed in Seogwipo city and realized its necessity for the development of education in Seogwipo. The second stage was establishing the implementing organizations. On 18th of February in 2009, the administration launched a new department called 'Slow tourism city promotion team' with three staff members and on the 5th of August, 2010, they opened another new department called 'Creative city team' with five staff members. These department signed an agreement with the Jeju Olle Incorporation (September, 2007) and the Seogwipo-si education development fund(April, 2011) and started its strategic implementation of the policies. The third stage was the establishment of the partnership. In case of the Jeju Olle, it was developed by going through enormous discussions with the native people of Seogwipo who knows every inch of the area. Also the Jeju Olle Incorporation and Seogwipo city promoted the sisterhood project between one company per one town for 14 courses of Olle trails. Also the Seogwipo-si education development fund recruited 4,100 citizen to participate in developing the self-regulating education funding environment. The fourth stage was the profit-making process. Due to the success of the Jeju Olle trails, the tourism income soared to 50,625 thousands US dollars in 2010. Followed by the rapid increase in the income, further development for public transport, grandmother guest house, everyday Olle market, and Jeju traditional restaurants are under development plan. On the other hand, it also caused the creation of green job effect by making 300 positions for Jeju Olle keeper, Olle trail protector, Olle environment guard and Olle trail information guide. For the Seogwipo-si education development fund, it hosted the popular culture camp for youth with 96 students and native Jeju actors and movie directors. They also held the science class with students from MIT university with 84 participants and supported 892 thousands US dollars to 10 local elementary schools, junior and senior high schools as a special education promotion program.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
During the implementing process of the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city, building capability process was essential to recognize the problems and put efforts to solve these problems. Five significant issues were generated during this process but the partnership governance successfully resolved the problems. Firstly, the lack of recognition for the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city and not enough experience was the first problem faced by the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city. It was even difficult for the partnership to divide their roles in implementing the development process. Continuous dialogue between two parties improved the situation greatly. In 2010, 32 dialogues and opinion exchange session was held and agreed on 8 agendas. Also the Seogwipo-si education development fund held 15 meetings and made concrete decisions for 8 agendas. Secondly, the binding force of decision making was another problem. When a public-private partnership governance want to function as a decision making organization, binding force is a crucial requirement. However, the reality was harsh. Therefore any decision made by the public-private partnership governance was regarded as the order from the mayor of Seogwipo and dealt with authority and gained its binding force. Thirdly, there were issues regarding administrative and financial supports. Due to the insufficient data for the alegal basis, funding the civil organizations was a difficult task. Therefore, the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city has explained its significance to the Jeju Special Self-governing Province and the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial council and demanded for further financial support. Fourthly, resolving the dependence on administration was another problem confronted by the public-private partnership governance. The public civil organizations were suffering from the tight financial situation and the production of dolls, scarf and bandana from the Jeju Olle Incorporations helped to relieve the situation and the profit from the sales are being used in the implementation. From the education sector, the education development fund was established and it is expanding its activity region.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
In order to promote the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city, organizational support, financial support and locational support were provided. First of all, the governance established two new departments, 'Slow tourism team' and 'Creative city team' with eight staff members as an organizational support.The top priority and requirements for the selection of its staff members was how innovative and courageous they were. In doing so the public-private partnership governance strengthened its capacity and its practicality for systematic support. Especially, the establishment of the two new departments is gaining favorable notices from the public that the mayor's will and passion for the project is well reflected in the establishments. The adequate financial support is essential too. Followed by the division of role between the public and private sector, the partnership governance organized special funding and subsidies for the enterprises from the public sector. For example, in the Jeju Olle Trails, they injected 4,964 thousands US dollars for the construction of amenities, information desk, health experience booth and for the maintenance of the Olle trails. Also the partnership governance assigned 295 thousands US dollars to the Jeju Olle Incorporation to support and implement various events including the Honeymoon Jeju Olle and operating academies. this financial support for the Jeju Olle Incorporation resulted in creating 114,643 thousands US dollars, which is equivalent to 22 times of the injected fund. For the education sector, the partnership governance provided 893 thousands US dollars in 2011 for creative training programs like reading club, essay writing, self-directed learning, language study abroad and special academies for both student and teachers. In addition the fund constructed a place for Seogwipo citizens' opinion exchange by using the given budget. By using the given budget, the Jeju Olle Incorporations established the Olle headquarter (234㎡)and the Seogwipo-si education development fund secured its office(33㎡) in the city hall and pushing forward its projects. These places are also being used as a location for decision making meetings, life-long educations for citizen, preparation place for the events and receiving the donation.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
From the very early stage of the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city, it aimed at a sustainable growth model. In order to achieve their goals, the private sector was given with more authority to effectively implement their projects in practice. For example, the corporate bodies were founded to continuously encourage the participation of the private sector. The 'Slow tourism team' from the public sector was a temporary task force team at the beginning but soon it became an official department of the city hall and it is cooperating with the Jeju Olle Incorporation. Also for the education sector, the city hall established the 'University establishment support team' along with the 'Creative city team' in August, 2011 to provide extra support. Through these hard working and efforts, the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city gained national attention and popularity. For example, the Jeju Olle trails were designated as 'The 20 most beautiful ecological trail' in 2009 by the Ministry of Environment. The Olle trails were also selected as the winner of the 'City Portal', supervised by the Ministry of Land Transport and Maritime affairs. Also in 2010, the Jeju Olle trail was designated as the winner place for 'where families would like to visit the best'. The Jeju Olle trail is originated from Seogwipo and in 70 other regions of the Korea, they are operating similar projects about trekking. Many other countries are studying and analysing the case of Seogwipo in order to bench mark the idea of Olle trail. For example, the Jeju Olle Incorporation signed a memorandum of understanding in August, 2011 with Japan Kyushu tourism promotion organization and opened up its first Olle trail in Japan. Also in November, 2010, the Incorporation hosted the ‘2010 World Trail Conference’ and signed three agreements of 'Friendship road' with the Cotswold Way in UK during April of 2011. Recently in September, 2011, the Jeju Olle Incorporation named the Olle course number 2 and the Bruce Trail in Canada as the 'Friendship road' to symbolize their mutual friendship. Also the construction of the world prestige education city in Seogwipo city can be a model case for other countries including the United States and other developing countries to improve the quality of youth education.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city has satisfied the needs of citizen by delivering confidence, proud and as well as the economic benefits. Through public-private partnership governance, Seogwipo city could accumulate various experiences in methods of partnership and effective utilization of resources. These experience will play significants role in the future of Seogwipo city administration. The capacity building result for partnership governance was another valuable gain from the experience. The capacity building for citizen can be witnessed through the idea recommendation made to the administration and how the administration accepted their opinion. This mutual understanding from two parties gave the matrix for the sustainable development of Seogwipo with democracy and diversity. The success of the public-private partnership governance can be seen in the change in the population. For the last 23 years, the population in Seogwipo displayed decrease but the number has turned around since 2010 and it was not because of anything but the successful the public-private partnership governance. The population of Seogwipo city increased from 153,797 in 2009 to 155,504 in 2010. The Jeju Olle trail project was a crucial propose in the materializing such a global idea into a reality project as it was not driven by the degrading, government-centered insufficient project. Rather, it was suitable for the global standard has potential for profit-making for the future. Also, the world prestige education city project was implemented under the cooperation of administration, citizen, civil organization and enterprises. Finally, it generated a meaningful result of the active role and significance of the public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city. As shown above, such effective and successful public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city will maximize its strength minimize its weaknesses to provide rather efficient administration for its citizen. Finally, Seogwipo city wishes that our experience of public-private partnership governance and its experience in creating the sustainable development capability will make some contributions to other communities and countries in the world as the world that we are living in today is very rapidly changing and filled up with uncertainty. The public-private partnership governance in Seogwipo city hopes to shine a light to those regions and countries suffering from endless helplessness.


Institution Name:		Seogwipo city
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Kwang-chul Lim
Title:		Planning Manager
Telephone/ Fax:		+82-64-760-2191 / +82-64-760-2199
Institution's / Project's Website:		www.seogwipo.go.kr/www.jejuolle.org
E-mail:		jejuci@jeju.go.kr
Address:		Jungang-ro 105
Postal Code:		697-701
City:		Seogwipo City
State/Province:		Jeju Special Self-governing Province
Country:

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information