Korea Rail Network Authority Prioritizes 'Public Welfare and Local Economy'... Early Budget Execution and Reduction of State Property Usage Fees

Kim Sang-gyun, President of the Korea Rail Network Authority (center), is presiding over the "Special Inspection Meeting for Revitalizing Public Livelihoods and the Local Economy" on the 10th. Photo by Korea Rail Network Authority

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Korea Rail Network Authority is taking steps to support public livelihood and the local economy.

The Rail Network Authority announced on the 10th that it held a "Special Inspection Meeting for Revitalizing Public Livelihood and the Local Economy." The meeting was organized to seek measures to minimize the damage to small and medium-sized construction companies and small business owners struggling due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and to inject vitality into the weakened local economy.

At this meeting, the Rail Network Authority decided to increase the early execution budget for the first half of this year to 3.468 trillion won (61.5% of the total). This is 1.6 percentage points higher than the initially targeted 59.9% of the total budget.

In particular, out of the 1.045 trillion won allocated for small-scale facility improvement projects, 644.8 billion won (61.7%) will be executed in the first half of the year to support the financial liquidity of local small and medium-sized construction companies.

Most of the companies participating in the small-scale facility improvement projects are local small and medium-sized construction companies, and supporting these companies is expected to have a relatively large effect on revitalizing the local economy.

Additionally, in the construction materials procurement sector (purchased through the Public Procurement Service), the Rail Network Authority plans to stabilize the management of local small material production companies by utilizing the "Advance Payment and Advance Notification System." This system allows the Rail Network Authority, as the demand institution, to pay the advance payment to the Public Procurement Service in advance when a producer requests an advance, enabling the use of production funds.

The Rail Network Authority will also work with the government to support small business owners by reducing fees for the use of national property. The plan is to provide fee reduction benefits worth 2.5 billion won to small business owners for 433 cases of annual national property usage fees (from April to December).

In particular, the Authority plans to independently reduce usage fees for 46 small business owners operating within privately funded stations owned by the state. The total fee reduction from April to December is expected to be 440 million won, with each company receiving a reduction benefit worth approximately 10 million won, according to the Rail Network Authority.

Kim Sang-gyun, Director of the Rail Network Authority, said, "The Rail Network Authority recognizes the severe situation caused by COVID-19 and plans to focus administrative efforts on revitalizing public livelihood and the local economy. Ultimately, we will do our best to ensure that the public can actually feel the effects and that we contribute to overcoming the COVID-19 crisis."

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