Daejeon City is fully committed to hosting the 2022 United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Congress in October next year, the city’s mayor said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

The UCLG World Congress is a large-scale international event in which approximately 1,000 city leaders from about 140 countries gather together to boost mutual cooperation and common prosperity among local governments.

The forum, which will be in its seventh year, is expected to welcome around 5,000 visitors and generate an economic ripple effect of 60 billion won ($53.7 million).

The event comprises an opening event, the main conference, workshops, town hall meeting and exhibitions. It will be held for five days and four nights at the Daejeon Convention Center and another new international exhibition center that will be built.

“The 2022 Daejeon UCLG World Congress is the largest-scale international event to be hosted in Daejeon since the Daejeon Expo in 1993,” said Daejeon Mayor Her Tae-Jeong.

“As it has been approved as international event by the government, we will work closely with central ministries and related agencies. We will prepare for the event in a way that we succeed in strengthening the position of Daejeon in the international community and contribute to vitalizing the local economy.”

The government-backed UCLG World Congress was given the green light last July by an international review committee under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The approval thus makes Daejeon city eligible to receive financial and administrative incentives from the central government.

Daejeon city is also planning to hold an international conference a year ahead of the congress this October. Major figures, including the secretary-general of UCLG and the chairmen of United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific, will be invited to attend.

Daejeon plans to promote the city to key members of the UCLG at the event that is themed after Korea’s response to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities will launch an organizing committee in the second half of the year to speed up planning and promotion of the event.

Daejeon City won the bid to host the 2022 UCLG World Congress in November 2019 when the previous forum was held in Durban, South Africa. 

By Yoon Chae-won (choenayoon@heraldcorp.com) and Lee Kwon-hyoung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)