eFM News

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is launching a new council of foreign residents as part of efforts to improve their quality of life in the capital.

The council is comprised of 30 residents from 20 countries, including the United States, France, China, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Song Da-young, a senior official who oversees the city's women and family-related policies, said, "We have had a foreign residents council to ensure the lives of some 460,000 foreigners are comfortable by listening to their opinions and reflecting them in our policies."

The council plans to create subcommittees to handle various agendas and make policy recommendations to the city government.

Previous editions of the council, which was first created in 2015, contributed to making policies on providing financial support to the families of deceased foreign construction workers and language education to children of marriage immigrants, according to the city government.