Q. This year, Wanju-gun became a legally designated cultural city. What is a legally designated cultural city?

A. This year, Wanju-gun started the year with the happy news of being designated as a legally designated cultural city, but what is the definition of a "legally designated cultural city"? Cultural cities are based on the Local Culture Promotion Act. Each local government sets up a cultural city creation plan based on its own cultural values and can be designated after uation and deliberation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Q. It says Wanju-gun is the first county to become a cultural city. Is that correct?

A. Absolutely. Currently, there are a total of 12 legally designated cultural cities in Korea, 7 designated in 2020 and 5 in 2021. Wanju-gun was the first county designated as a cultural city among 82 counties in the country, and became the only legally designated cultural city in the Honam region. It will receive 20 billion won in national, provincial, and county expenses.

Q. How is it helpful for Wanju-gun to be designated a cultural city?

A. Based on the law, it will a cultural city through the city brand of a legally designated cultural city, with financial support of up to 20 billion won for its projects, and systematic process design that values governance and civic cooperation. In other words, It's about establishing a new cultural tradition in the city. For this reason, many local governments are applying to be part of this project every year.

Q. In order to be designated as a cultural city, what processes did Wanju-gun go through?

A: It takes a total of two years to be designated as a cultural city. In the first year, the approval of the cultural city creation plan containing the characteristics and plans of local governments and the process of designating a prospective city will be carried out. In the second year, when the city has been designated as a prospective city, the processes and results of preliminary projects to a cultural city are uated.Wanju-gun’s plan to a community cultural city Wanju-gun was approved and designated as a prospective city in 2019, and Wanju-gun carried out various preliminary projects in 2020. Wanju-gun was finally designated as a cultural city in January, 2021. We have begun to take steps to a sustainable driving force for our own city through culture and an unrestricted local cultural environment.