I am Lee Kyung-Hoo, Mayor of Saha-gu, Busan Metropolitan City in Korea. First of all, I would like to extend my congratulations on the day of declaring the Charter of Educating Cities on November 30. Also, I actively support the International Day of the Educating city to commemorate the declaration.
Starting from the initial charter established in the first International Congress of Educating Cities in 1990, the charter of Educating Cities has made a great contribution to a broader opportunity to lifelong learning and higher educational potential for citizens.
In this context, modern societies are trying to reflect the principle of education cities into political projects. I also have supported citizens’ lifelong learning activities in various ways under the paradigm of ‘the learning educational city,’ one in my manifesto.
With the community spirit that Saha-gu is considered as one village, we “focused on activities that citizens get together to display their potential and identity as much as possible and to participate in administrative affairs. In addition, Saha-gu has made efforts to implement tailored policies for citizens. I think such efforts are the shortest way to the original development and those processes are all involving education.
As part of our efforts, we finally received the first Educating Cities’ Award with ‘Creative Regeneration, Gamcheon Culture Village’ in the 14th IAEC Congress held in Rosario, Argentina.
Furthermore, Saha-gu will create active and voluntary participation of civil societies and organizations to make Saha a better educating city for the future.
Finally, I always give support and encouragement to the IAEC making efforts to improve the quality of citizens’ lives through improving the education circumstances and promoting lifelong learning activities. And I sincerely pledge our compliance with the Charter of Educating Cities as a qualifiable partner.