Expanding Participation in the National Participatory Budget... "Citizens Also Select Issues"

Conducting a Problem-Solving Issue Selection Survey

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyun-jung] The Ministry of Economy and Finance is expanding public participation in the 국민참여예산 (People's Participatory Budget) initiative, which aims to discover projects led by the public and allocate budgets accordingly. While last year the government prioritized selecting specific issues on its own, this year it plans to encourage public participation from the initial stage.

On the 30th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that it will conduct a theme selection survey for this year's problem-solving type 국민참여방식 (People's Participation Method) from the 1st of next month for one month.

Last year, due to the pilot introduction of the system and time constraints, the government independently selected three issues: ▲Restoration of the youth hope ladder ▲Childcare support ▲Establishment of happy workplaces for SMEs, small business owners, and self-employed workers. However, this year, the survey will be conducted on the website. People will vote on preferred issues among the 10 issues proposed by the government and also directly suggest important issues they consider significant.

The 10 candidate issues proposed by the government are ▲Regional jobs ▲Revitalization of regional tourism ▲Fostering the content industry ▲DNA (Data, Network, AI) ▲Cultivating innovative talents leading advanced fields ▲Activation of economic activities for the elderly and women ▲Elimination of educational gaps and equality of educational opportunities ▲Response to sex crimes ▲Response to the increase in single-person households ▲Suicide prevention.

After the voting period ends, about five issues will be finally selected considering the consensus on public proposals and the urgency of policies.

Once the issues are selected, online discussions will be held on the participatory budget website to develop related response measures. These will be reflected in the budget requests of each ministry after discussions involving relevant ministries, private experts, project proposers, and the general public.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.