Geumcheon-gu announced it has achieved a first-place rating — the highest possible — in the Seoul autonomous district category of the Ministry of Interior and Safety's 2026 Joint Local Government Evaluation.
The district climbed one tier from its second-place rating last year to claim the top rating this year. It earned consistently strong marks across all assessment categories — quantitative indicators, qualitative evaluation and effort — demonstrating broad administrative capacity across district operations.
The Joint Local Government Evaluation is a system through which the Ministry of Interior and Safety comprehensively assesses the performance of nationally delegated duties, state-subsidized projects and major national policy initiatives. Based on those results, the Seoul Metropolitan Government assigns ratings of first through fourth to each of its 25 autonomous districts, factoring in quantitative indicator achievement rates, qualitative best-practice cases and the effort invested in evaluation preparation.
Geumcheon-gu met its targets on 43 of the 46 quantitative indicators under review, recording an achievement rate of 93.5 percent. The district was recognized for balanced policy execution across a wide range of areas closely tied to residents' daily lives, including welfare, public health, safety, the environment and employment.
In the qualitative assessment, the district's single-use plastics reduction project was selected as a best practice. The program drew praise for installing tumbler-washing stations inside the district office to make it easy for staff and residents to use reusable cups, and for spreading a culture of reducing single-use plastics in everyday life.
In the effort category, the district satisfied all six evaluation criteria. It established a comprehensive joint-evaluation action plan and consistently carried out regular progress reviews, training for indicator managers, intensive management of underperforming indicators and identification of best-practice cases.
The district also ran a systematic performance-management framework, conducting frequent checks of results by indicator and analyzing the causes of underperformance to develop improvement measures. This cross-departmental collaboration and meticulous performance management are credited as the key factors behind the district's rise from a second-place rating last year to the top rating this year.
Building on these results, the district plans to strengthen its successful policies further while analyzing the causes behind unmet indicators and devising remedies. It intends to deepen inter-departmental collaboration and continue identifying policy outcomes that residents can feel in their daily lives, with the aim of raising the quality of administrative services.
"This first-place rating is a precious achievement made together by the staff who gave their best in their respective roles and the residents who actively participated in district affairs," Geumcheon-gu District Mayor Choi Ki-chan said. "Rather than resting on these results, we will keep delivering policy outcomes that residents can feel in their everyday lives and build an administration that earns even greater trust."
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