Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has chosen Bologna, Italy, as his next business destination to benchmark the successful model for cooperatives that involves one-third of Bologna citizens.

“On the way to visit Spain to attend the ‘World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments’ summit as a chairman country in November, I would like to look around Bologna, where Korean civil servants can learn many things,” Park said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

Bologna is one of the richest cities in Europe, with an average yearly income of $40,000, nearly double the country’s.

Cooperatives are known as the growth engine of the city, in which 15 out of 50 major companies take part.

Park also stressed that more small businesses that create high-value products should be running in Seoul too. “Bologna is where small companies are developed such as a carmaker producing only few hand-made vehicles in a year,” he said.

Park traveled to three countries after taking office in October 2011 in order to survey other countries’ successful policies. He looked at Japan’s operation of a hydro-power plant, a disaster prevention system in Hong Kong and Brazil’s bikeway and arboretums based on eco-friendly policies.

After the business trips, Park held meetings with officials to share ideas and review the policies that he learned from other countries. He also opened a public hearing before moving forward with new plans. 



By Park Han-na
(hnpark@heraldcorp.com)