Kim Mi-yeon, Suncheon City Council Member, "Festival Budget Should Be Cut and Reallocated to COVID-19 Budget"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Kim Mi-yeon, a member of the Suncheon City Council in Jeollanam-do (Chairman Seo Jeong-jin), proposed during a 5-minute free speech at the first plenary session of the 240th extraordinary meeting on the 17th to cut budgets for non-urgent projects such as festivals and events canceled due to the spread of COVID-19 and reallocate them to support COVID-19 response and projects to revitalize the local economy.

Councilor Kim pointed out that among the 10 major festivals and events scheduled to be held in the first half of this year, six were canceled and four postponed to the second half, resulting in an unused budget of 1 billion KRW. Meanwhile, the financial demand for citizens struggling with their livelihoods due to COVID-19 has greatly increased, indicating the need to comprehensively readjust this year’s budget.

In particular, she argued that expenses for various events, domestic and international training costs, overseas travel expenses, subsidies, and other projects with uncertain execution this year should be boldly reduced to create a list of cuts and promptly prepare measures to reallocate these budgets to COVID-19 related expenses.

She also emphasized that in the COVID-19 crisis situation, Suncheon City must make its best efforts to revitalize the local economy, and the 280,000 citizens should unite their wisdom and strength by participating in the intensive social distancing campaign with a sense of responsibility as the main agents of COVID-19 prevention.

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