Ansan Mayor Lee Min-keun skipped a separate inauguration ceremony on July 1, the first day of his ninth-term popularly elected administration, and began full-scale city administration by making successive visits to sites tied to the livelihood economy and future growth engines. Lee, the first mayor in Ansan's history to win re-election, presented "city administration that finds answers on the ground" as the operating principle of his ninth-term administration through on-site inspections directly linked to citizens' lives.
For his first schedule that day, Lee visited the Ansan Agricultural and Fisheries Wholesale Market to check the inbound volumes and trading prices of major agricultural and fisheries products, and held a meeting with merchants. He listened to the difficulties of distributors struggling with high prices and economic downturn, while also gathering opinions on the relocation of the agricultural and fisheries wholesale market, a key pledge of his ninth-term administration.
At the meeting, requests continued for improvements to the inconveniences caused by aging facilities and insufficient logistics space, and opinions were raised that active support from the city was needed to modernize the wholesale market and revitalize distribution. That day, along with a win-win donation from the merchants' association, the vegetable middlemen's council of the Nonghyup auction market also donated 600 kilograms of cabbage to celebrate the launch of the ninth-term administration.
Lee then held the first on-site executive meeting of his ninth-term administration at the Kakao Data Center, checking the progress of key strategic projects being pursued around the ASV District of the free economic zone. At the meeting, discussions concentrated on ways to build a foundation for future growth that harmonizes industrial, research and development, residential, and transportation functions by linking the development of Sa-dong Blocks 89 and 90 and the former site of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, the creation of the Hanyang University ERICA Advanced Medical Complex Cluster, and the Sinansan Line extension project.
The meeting also comprehensively reviewed the inter-departmental collaboration system, cooperation with related agencies, and various administrative procedures, with a decision to accelerate the pace of project implementation.
After the meeting, Lee visited the Sinansan Line Hanyang University Station construction site to check the progress of the work and major pending issues. The city plans to strengthen cooperation with related agencies so that the Sinansan Line project—a key wide-area transportation network that will improve access to the free economic zone—proceeds without setbacks, while also concentrating administrative capacity to ensure the Sinansan Line's Daebu Island extension plan is reflected in the Fifth National Railway Network Construction Plan.
"I thought the beginning of the ninth-term administration should start on the ground where citizens are," Mayor Lee said. "I will steadily pursue not only the recovery of the livelihood economy and revitalization of the local economy, but also the creation of the free economic zone and the expansion of the wide-area transportation network, to create a city administration where citizens feel the change."
