The Seoul city government will invest 86.1 trillion won by 2030 to raise both competitiveness to the level of the world's top three cities and the quality of life for residents.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on the 10th at City Hall's multipurpose hall that the city finalized and began implementing the "G3 Seoul Plan," which contains these measures.
The G3 Seoul Plan is the top strategy of the 9th popularly elected administration under Oh Se-hoon. It is a new strategy for Seoul to respond to the AI transformation, the climate crisis, demographic changes, and the global competition for talent, with the goal of leaping into the world's top three cities.
Seoul is already on an upward trajectory in major global city evaluations. In the Global Power City Index (GPCI), it rose from seventh in 2022 to sixth last year, while Kearney's Global Cities Outlook climbed from 36th to second over the same period. In particular, in last year's GPCI, Seoul posted the biggest score increase among the top 10 cities, narrowing the gap with fifth-place Singapore to five points.
With the vision of Seoul as a global top city and a special city for quality of life, the city presented five future visions—health and safety city, companion growth city, housing stability city, opportunity and vitality city, and spatial innovation city—along with 20 strategic goals and 100 core tasks. ◇ ◎ ▲
To that end, a total of 86.1 trillion won will be invested by June 2030. The funding consists of 53.7 trillion won from the city budget, 9.2 trillion won from the national budget, and 23.2 trillion won from private and other sources.
The 100 core tasks focus on delivering changes that residents can feel. The goal is to drive change in areas residents encounter most—economy and industry as well as housing, health, safety, education, and transportation.
Key tasks for the health and safety city include the "10-minute wellness zone at your doorstep" and the "24-hour everyday safety zone." The city will create facilities that allow anyone to exercise within 10 minutes from home and expand the Seoul Fitness Center network from the current 20 locations to 100. It will also build a safety zone that ensures peace of mind regardless of time and place.
In the housing sector, the city will break ground on 310,000 units under the fast-track integrated planning program and supply 130,000 public housing units by 2031. It will also manage 146 project sites in phases with the goal of starting construction on 40,000 Moa Housing units. Through this, it plans to link the acceleration of redevelopment projects, the supply of public housing, a housing ladder tailored to life stages, and the prevention of jeonse fraud into a single housing safety net.
The companion growth city strategy aims to reduce loneliness and gaps in education and care, while expanding spaces and services that sustain relationships within daily living zones. Currently, one-person households account for four out of 10 in Seoul. Of them, 62% report feeling lonely.
Accordingly, through Loneliness-free Seoul 2.0, the city will support residents' daily recovery and the formation of social networks. It will expand the Seoul Mind Convenience Store program to all districts, prepare age-specific programs, and run "Seoul Solo Shared Table Companionship," where one-person households and others eat together and interact.
Alongside this, the opportunity and vitality city strategy nurtures youth AI skills, global talent, and the nighttime economy, industry, and culture as new growth engines for Seoul. It will build an ecosystem where young people and global talent grow together and culture feeds into the vitality of tourism, commercial districts, and industry.
The city will pursue the "Youth AI Ladder," providing AI credits and free basic education to 500,000 young people, and support employment and startups by linking job experience and specialized training. It will also supply 74,000 "Youth Housing The Dream House+" units, including 10,000 "Seoul-style Seedling One-room" units and 6,000 shared housing units.
By doing so, the city will lay a ladder of opportunity by linking education, jobs, and housing policies so that young people can build AI skills and work experience and grow with their peers from the end of their studies to their first job.
To create a spatial innovation city, housing, jobs, learning, and culture will be evenly distributed across Seoul and linked by mass transit and Autonomous Driving.
In addition to the three existing core urban centers—central Seoul, Yeouido, and Gangnam—the city will develop Sangam–Susaek, Gasan–Guro, Changdong–Sanggye, and Godeok–Gangil as four metropolitan urban centers.
Aiming to become the world's top Autonomous Driving city, the number of autonomous buses will be expanded from the current 16 to 500 by 2030. Operating hours will be gradually extended to 24 hours after safety verification, starting from late-night and early-morning weekday service. Autonomous taxis will be increased from 19 in the greater Gangnam area to 50 across Gangnam and Sangam by 2027.
By year's end, the city will establish an action plan detailing goals, timelines, funding, and performance indicators for each of the 100 core tasks. The Strategic Planning and Coordination Office will check progress.
Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, "Global top three is not simply about raising our ranking among world cities; it is a strategy to turn Seoul's competitiveness into a better life for every resident," adding, "Residents are ultimately both the force that builds a global city and the ones who enjoy its results, so we will raise both urban competitiveness and quality of life."