Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Changwon city chief named world's 6th best mayor
Mayor Park Wan-su
By Yi Whan-woo
By Yi Whan-woo
The head of Changwon City, South Gyeongsang Province, has been named world’s sixth best mayor by an international think tank, the city government said Thursday.
The municipality said Mayor Park Wan-su joined the top 10 list released by the City Mayors Foundation for his leadership and contribution to coping with global environmental challenge last year.
Park, 57, was the only Korean recipient for the World Mayor Prize 2012 announced on Tuesday by the foundation, a London-based think tank for urban affairs. It selected 25 nominees through its own evaluation last June before coming up with the top 10 list.
The nonprofit organization encourages city mayors to develop solutions to create favorable living circumstances for their respective citizens. It deals with housing, transportation, education, employment, security and environment.
“The mayor’s environmental initiatives have won attention outside the country and seemingly gone beyond concrete measures towards changing people's perceptions in this area,” the foundation commented on its website.
According to the foundation, its biennial prize is given to a mayor with outstanding contribution to his or her society with a vision for urban living and working that is relevant to towns and cities across the world.
And the municipal government echoed a similar view on Park, who was elected in 2010 to serve the city with a 1.1 million population for the third time since 2004 and 2006.
“We believe the foundation recognized Park’s strong and stable leadership and passion for his work to serve the 1.1 million citizens faithfully,” it said in a statement. “We also deem his participation to fulfill global issues such as environment, education and security was highly valued.”
Park has pushed to turn the city into the nation’s “environmental capital” during his tenure. He hosted a number of global environmental conferences, including the Ramsar Convention on wetlands in 2008.
Bilbao Mayor Inaki Azkuna of Spain topped the list for transforming a waning industrial town into an international tourism and art site since coming into office in 1999. He was followed by Lisa Scaffidi, mayor of Perth in Australia, and Joko Widodo, mayor of Surakarta in Indonesia.