Sejong Special Self-Governing City (Mayor Choi Min-ho - 최민호) announced that it will hold the world's first International Garden City Expo for 45 days from April 11, 2025, to lead a new urban paradigm in response to environmental changes such as climate crisis and post-pandemic. Sejong City is planning to remodel the entire city as one huge garden based on excellent garden-related resources such as the world's largest rooftop garden, lake park, Korea National Arboretum, Mulbit Garden, etc., creating a living culture to get along with beautiful and healthy nature in the daily city life.
The theme of the Expo is 'A Day in the Garden with the Family', to overcome crises such as generational severance and disintegration of the family. In this Expo, families can deeply feel the preciousness and friendliness of nature, regain family love and family values, and seek together better harmony between family living and nature.
The Expo site is divided into 5 zones which consist of paid and free zones. The paid zones are four: theme zone, program zone, family leisure zone, and arboretum zone. In the Theme Zone, mainly media exhibitions will be promoted under the theme of family and garden, and industry-linked platform spaces (family theme hall, garden industry hall, world garden virtual experience hall, flower sculptures, etc.) as seedlings, flowers, and landscaping architectures will be showcased. The Program Zone is operated as a venue for official events such as opening and closing ceremonies and major offline events. The Arboretum Zone will be incorporated into the Expo so that the outdoor and indoor spaces of the Arboretum, such as the International Greenhouse Garden and the Korean Traditional Garden, can be used together. The Eco Zone, a free zone, is a place to show and publicize the natural ecological environment of Sejong City, and during the Expo, to be used as an ecological and educational space by decorating plants and flowers around it.
During the Expo, the Sejong city government estimates an average of 40,000 visitors per day and a total of 1.8 million for 45 days. If 1.8 million people visit, it is expected that the production inducement effect will amount to about 188 billion won, while added value inducement effect will be about 76 billion won, and job creation, about 2,000 people.
Choi Min-ho, Mayor of Sejong City, stressed, "We will make Sejong City 'Korea's No. 1 Garden City' in order to promote the beautiful resources and environment of Sejong City to the world”, and expressed his grand plan to develop it into a world-class garden city that will realize and practice both the preservation of beauty and healthiness of nature and the enhancement of ecology and gardening industry.
