Busan is good

Mayor Park Heong-joon, “Busan’s 15-Minute City to Leap Forward as a Global Policy Model”… Signs MOU with Chaire-ETI Under Paris Sorbonne University

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Busan Metropolitan City announced that Mayor Park Heong-joon signed an MOU with Chaire-ETI, the Entrepreneurship, Territory and Innovation Research Chair under Paris Sorbonne University, on the afternoon of February 27 (local time) in Paris, France, to advance the realization of a sustainable city through Busan’s 15-Minute City initiative.

Chaire-ETI under Paris Sorbonne University is a research institute focused on Entrepreneurship, Territory, and Innovation. It is also the academic home of Professor Carlos Moreno, who coined the concept of the “15-Minute City.”

Since the inception of the 15-Minute City policy, the City has maintained an advisory and consulting partnership with Chaire-ETI, particularly with Professor Carlos Moreno.

This MOU with Chaire-ETI carries significance in that it enables the sharing of the values and philosophy of the 15-Minute City with world-renowned scholars and expert groups, while further advancing Busan’s policies.

The signing ceremony was attended by officials from Busan Metropolitan City, the Secretary General of the Sorbonne Business School in Paris, the Chair of its foundation, and the Executive Director of Chaire-ETI.

Through this agreement, Busan and Chaire-ETI plan to establish a more advanced framework of cooperation to realize a sustainable city and achieve the shared goal of creating a city where citizens are happy, based on the philosophy of the 15-Minute City.

Key areas of cooperation include sharing the values and philosophy of the 15-Minute City, building a global network for the initiative, promoting public-private exchanges, and other policy collaboration deemed mutually necessary.

Starting with this agreement, the City intends to actively leverage Chaire-ETI’s global network to strengthen cooperation with leading cities around the world for sustainable urban development.

In addition, Busan and Chaire-ETI agreed to host an international conference in Busan in the second half of this year to advance 15-Minute City policies in Asia and promote global solidarity.

The City has consistently expanded both domestic and international exchanges to enhance the completeness of its policies by branding the tangible achievements and best practices of the 15-Minute City Busan initiative.

In particular, practical improvements that enhance citizens’ quality of life—such as key anchor facilities including Deullak Nallak and Haha Centers, as well as social overhead capital infrastructure and policy services—have led to meaningful outcomes, prompting the City to actively pursue a “global initiative” to share these accomplishments with the international community.

These efforts have been recognized as exemplary cases in reports by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at international conferences, and in publications by Professor Carlos Moreno, the proponent of the 15-Minute City. Last November, Busan further demonstrated its excellence by winning two awards, including a gold prize, at the LivCom Awards.

Meanwhile, in preparation for this agreement, the City visited major global cities to pursue a qualitative leap in its 15-Minute City policy and to strengthen the foundation for global cooperation in successfully hosting the 2028 World Design Capital (WDC) Busan.

The City plans to benchmark leading examples such as Paris’s “Safe Routes to School” and bicycle-centered transportation policies, as well as Barcelona’s Superblocks, and incorporate them into the “15-Minute Happy City Busan Step-Up Strategy” announced last December. Through this, Busan aims to create a safe pedestrian environment for children commuting to school and establish an urban system that enables the safe use of bicycles in everyday life.

In Barcelona, the City also met with the Chief Architect and officials from the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation (BCD Foundation) to discuss cases of urban innovation through design and explore close cooperation measures. Additionally, in discussions with Xavi Calvo, CEO of the Valencia Design Foundation, the parties examined in depth strategies to promote citizen-participatory design policies, a key driving strategy for World Design Capital (WDC) Busan, aimed at enhancing urban competitiveness. Based on Valencia’s successful experience in hosting the 2022 World Design Capital, Busan plans to develop practical operational models applicable to its own context.

The delegation also visited ELISAVA, a leading design education institution in Barcelona known for its active industry-academia cooperation with businesses and local communities, to review its practice-oriented design education linked to industry, as well as its design projects addressing sustainability and urban and social challenges, and to discuss potential avenues for collaboration.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “This agreement represents an important opportunity to further refine the 15-Minute City Busan initiative and elevate it into a globally recognized urban policy model.” He added, “We will continue to strengthen global solidarity and expand policy exchanges so as to enhance Busan’s stature not only for its citizens but also as a global city of citizen happiness recognized worldwide.”

He further remarked, “Through cooperation with world-renowned scholars, research institutions, and global networks, we will further advance Busan’s model of the 15-Minute City and link it with the 2028 World Design Capital Busan to enhance the overall design competitiveness of the city.”