Busan is good

Busan Named “Best Volunteer City” and Receives the Presidential Citation at the 2025 Korea Volunteer Awards

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it received the Presidential Institutional Citation, the highest honor awarded to institutions, at the 2025 Korea Volunteer Awards held today (5th) at 2 p.m. at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang.

The “Korea Volunteer Awards” is the most prestigious award in the field of volunteerism, presented by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to outstanding volunteers, organizations, companies, and local governments that have significantly contributed to promoting volunteer activities and responding to disasters and emergencies. This year marks its 20th anniversary.

This is the first time since the inception of the awards that Busan Metropolitan City has received the Presidential Institutional Citation.

Busan is the city where the Korea Council of Volunteer Organizations, a private volunteer association, was founded in 1991. In 1996, Busan also became the first city in the country to establish a “Volunteer Center,” laying the groundwork for the nationwide expansion of volunteerism. Today, the number of registered volunteers in the city has surpassed one million, demonstrating its longstanding tradition.

The city successfully hosted the 2024 World Volunteer Conference in Busan, which brought together 3,436 participants from 77 countries last year, raising global awareness of Busan as a “City of Volunteerism” and enhancing its urban brand value.

In addition, to ensure the successful hosting of this year’s National Sports Festival (including the Para Games), 9,550 volunteers participated across the entire event, contributing through ▲competition operations support ▲medical and quarantine assistance ▲opening and closing ceremony support ▲welcome event support, and more. Their dedicated efforts around the clock embodied the values of civic participation and solidarity.

Of particular note, Busan Metropolitan City has taken a leading role in expanding citizen-centered digital volunteer platforms by establishing and operating the nation’s first blockchain-based Volunteer Bank platform, one of the key pledges of the 8th popularly elected municipal administration.

The platform applies blockchain technology to ensure transparency in volunteer records, encourage voluntary peer-to-peer matching, and create a data-driven participation system. It is regarded as a representative example of Busan’s fulfillment of mayoral pledges.

As of now, 30,783 individuals have registered on the “Volunteer Bank Platform,” with 21,671 participating in volunteer missions and 463 peer-to-peer volunteer matches successfully completed.

Based on this progress, the city plans to expand the platform to more than 100,000 users by 2030, focusing on spreading a lifestyle-oriented culture of volunteerism in which anyone can easily participate and connect.

Mayor Park Heong-joon said, “This award is an official acknowledgment of the achievements in volunteerism that we created together with our citizens. I extend my sincere gratitude to every volunteer who has helped build a warmer Busan through their service.”

He added, “We will enhance policy support to ensure that volunteerism becomes a part of everyday life and that Busan becomes a city where citizens are truly happy, further strengthening a sustainable volunteer ecosystem grounded in participation and trust.”