Daejeon City Responds to Prolonged COVID-19... Expands Local Currency and Strengthens Support for Low-Income Groups and Small Business Owners

Daejeon City has established and is operating the "Emergency Economic Countermeasures Headquarters," led by Mayor Heo Tae-jeong of Daejeon, to respond to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis. Provided by Daejeon City

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is preparing to respond to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The core measures include adjusting the scale and timing of local currency issuance, providing emergency disaster livelihood support funds to low-income groups, and strengthening support for small business owners and self-employed individuals.

The city announced on the 23rd that it has established and will implement a "Comprehensive Plan for Overcoming the COVID-19 Crisis, Economic Recovery, and Community Restoration" based on these measures.

First, to help circulate funds in the local economy depressed by COVID-19, the city will increase the issuance scale of local currency from the original 250 billion KRW to 500 billion KRW. The issuance timing will also be moved forward from July to May.

In particular, the city plans to raise the local currency discount rate up to 15% and increase the monthly purchase limit per person from the original 500,000 KRW to 1,000,000 KRW to boost local currency purchase rates. This strategy aims to revitalize the depressed local economy by leveraging the advantages of local currency, which has fast cash flow and positive ripple effects.

Support for low-income residents and small business owners facing economic crises due to COVID-19 will also be strengthened. To this end, the city will provide up to 700,000 KRW worth of 'Hope Seed' emergency disaster livelihood support funds to low-income households in the region. The support targets approximately 170,000 low-income households with middle income exceeding 50% but less than or equal to 100%, who have been overlooked by existing support systems, with differentiated payments based on household size. For example, 300,000 KRW for single-person households, 480,000 KRW for two-person households, and 561,000 KRW for four-person households will be provided via prepaid cards.

The city plans to cover the total budget of 70 billion KRW required for the support fund through the Disaster Management Fund (60 billion KRW) and general accounting transfers (10 billion KRW).

Additionally, support for small business owners will include compensation for business losses and rent reductions. For instance, stores that cannot operate normally due to visits by confirmed COVID-19 cases will receive up to 3 million KRW, and long-term closed stores will receive up to 1 million KRW. The city also plans to reduce rent for shared properties such as underground shopping malls by 50% to 80% for the next six months, subject to approval by the Shared Property Deliberation Committee within this month.

Furthermore, the city explained that it will provide 2 billion KRW in total, giving 200,000 KRW each to about 100,000 small business owners in the region under the name of electricity and water/sewerage fees, and support part of the health insurance premiums (up to 100,000 KRW per person for two months) paid by employers who hire workers.

Regarding the implementation of the comprehensive plan, the city has formed and will operate an "Emergency Economic Countermeasures Headquarters" led by Mayor Heo Tae-jeong, involving six practical teams and five district on-site response teams.

Mayor Heo Tae-jeong of Daejeon said, "The city has set 40 tasks based on four major strategies: stabilizing people's livelihoods, revitalizing the economy, recovering domestic demand, and fiscal investment, and plans to invest a total of 466.2 billion KRW in these tasks. We will also organize the Emergency Economic Countermeasures Headquarters to serve as a control tower to overcome the emergency situation and mobilize all available means to ensure swift and bold support."

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