Greetings, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this week’s edition of GTV. I’m Don Valiant and this is the news from Gyeonggi Province this week. ‘Gyeonggi True Parent’ Program for Parental Skills Education (0712) Gyeonggi Province has been operating a parental skills education program called ‘Gyeonggi True Parent’ for new and expectant parents. Providing guidance on becoming good parents, understanding children, and building strong relationships with children, this program was launched last year through a related public contest for parental education concepts. Education is provided in a contactless teleconference format by 18 childcare facilities in the province. Those wishing to apply for the program may do so after reviewing the schedules of those facilities. ◇ 353rd Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly Extraordinary Session Opens (0714-1) On July 13, the 353rd Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly Extraordinary Session opened for an 8-day run. Items to be reviewed during the session include an ordinance pertaining to the establishment and operation of a fund to return profits from provincial development projects to residents. This ordinance is geared to enable the transparent operation and effective use of public development profits to improve of quality of life for residents. Another ordinance to be reviewed concerns the establishment and operation of an integrated response system to violence against women and domestic violence. This will be a cooperative system involving Gyeonggi’s regional police offices, consultation agencies, and academia. Other items to be reviewed include an ordinance for the operation and support of river and valley monitors and a proposal for childcare facility Nuri program fee support for foreign children. ◇   Gyeonggi’s ‘Happy Town Guard House’ (0714-2) Since 2018, Gyeonggi Province has been operating Happy Town Guard Houses in older urban areas so as to provide their residents with services similar to those of apartment management offices. Constructed through the utilization of idle spaces at public facilities, the role of the Happy Town Guard Houses is to provide assistance required by residents such as environmental improvements, tool lending, delivery receipt, and safety escorts. With such services receiving positive responses from residents, the province announced plans to establish 5 more Happy Town Guard Houses, increasing their number from the originally planned 76 to 81 this year. ◇ Gyeonggi Governor Lee Meets with Space Industry Personnel (0713) On July 13, Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jaemyung (이재명) hosted a meeting with space industry personnel. During the meeting, Governor Lee discussed the present and future development of the space industry with professors, researchers and specialists in space and aviation fields. ◇ Gyeonggi Pursues Public Washroom Improvement for Women’s Safety (0716) Gyeonggi Province’s initiatives to ensure public washroom safety include its alarm installation and illegal camera detection programs. This year, the province will add the private washroom improvement program for women’s safety, the first program of its kind in Korea. This new initiative involves the environmental improvement of 1,000 private washrooms by 2023 for crime prevention through the installation of voice- or button-activated alarms that directly notify local police, as well as safety screens that prevent illegal camera recordings. Other amenities to be installed include safety mirrors and LED shadow illumination for enhanced crime prevention. ◇   Contactless Volunteer Activities Increase in Gyeonggi during COVID-19 Pandemic (0715-1) With contactless activities becoming more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, contactless methods have also become a trend in volunteer activities. The number of contactless volunteer service programs increased from 16 in 2019 to 150 this year. The monthly number this year also doubled compared to last year. There are a variety of innovative contactless volunteer service programs including a doll-making project for single mothers and trash collection while jogging The province is also endeavoring to ensure the systematic management and confirmation of contactless volunteer service time based on actual service hours through the provision of related guidelines. ◇ Gyeonggi to Recruit SMEs for Korea International Furniture & Interior Fair (0714) Gyeonggi Province is receiving applications from furniture SMEs in the province for a place among 30 spots at the 2021 Korea International Furniture & Interior Fair, or KOFURN (코펀). Marking its 32nd occasion this year, the 4-day event will run from August 26 to 29 and feature more than 200 local and international furniture enterprises from 9 nations. Enterprises wishing to participate can apply online via the EZbiz (이지비즈) website, Gyeonggi’s SME support information portal. ◇ Thank you for joining us for this week’s edition of GTV. We look forward to seeing you again next week.