The creation of "15-minute city, Busan" will begin in earnest. The plan closely deploys walking-oriented living convenience facilities and connects them to realize a city where citizens communicate and interact without hesitation and live well together as a warm community, where all citizens are happy.
The Busan Metropolitan Government announced on the 17th that it will promote "Happy Challenge" in earnest as a 15-minute urban diffusion model project in the nature of Living Lab from August.

Until now, Busan has formed a consensus with the local community on urban policy through the ▲15 minute declaration of urban vision (2021.5.) and ▲16 autonomous districts and counties (2021.6.-12). In addition, it has been at the forefront of creating a ‘15-minute city’ by attempting new tasks such as ▲ Children's Complex Cultural Space "In and Out" and ▲a shared mobility pilot project being promoted through public-private cooperation.

In particular, on March 23, the policy announcement revealed the three values ​​of 15-minute city Busan, including convenient accessibility to life, solidarity to share life, and sustainable ecology.

The newly launched "Happy Challenge" is a "calling water" project that spreads the value and philosophy of the "15 Minute City, Busan" completed throughout the city based on the know-how of urban regeneration projects that Busan has accumulated since 2002.

The name of Happy Challenge means "to challenge the city of 15 minutes, where all citizens are happy." The city plans to lead the Happy Challenge by collaborating with autonomous regions and counties.

First of all, from this year to 2024, a total of 150 billion won will be invested in 62 living areas across Busan.

After a step-by-step evaluation, one area will be selected as the first project target site for 2023 to 2024, and a preliminary plan will be established by October, and the budget will be drawn up and secured before starting in January next year.

From next year to 2024, 4 regions will be selected for each year, and the five representative life zones will be completed by 2027.

The 30 billion won invested in each living zone will be promoted as ①an accessibility improvement project that meets the characteristics of each representative living zone, ②solidarity enhancement project, ③ecological restoration project.

In addition, Busan City plans to improve the convenience of citizens by producing and distributing a 15-minute life map so that it can easily check and participate in distributed community activation programs such as culture, care, and youth, and low-use public-private shared facilities.

In particular, Busan City is making its portfolio of excellence and success stories created through the Happy Challenge, and then spreading these cases throughout the city through securing government funds.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon said, "Busan, a 15-minute city, is an experimental and challenging task for a global hub city," adding, "Our city will find and fill what is lacking so that all citizens can think and create together. At the same time, through administrative innovation, we will create a trust and cooperation model with new ideas to speed up the creation of the city of Busan in 15 minutes.

Reported by Smart City Today