"Revive the Economy"... Baek Gun-gi, Mayor of Yongin, Applies for Additional Issuance of 90 Billion Won in Local Currency

[Asia Economy (Yongin) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 9th that it has applied to the government through Gyeonggi Province to issue an additional 90 billion KRW of Yongin Y-Point to revive the local economy, which has been hit by the impact of COVID-19.

Yongin City also requested an extension of the incentive period that offers a 10% discount on the use of local currency from the original July to December.

Mayor Baek Gun-gi of Yongin explained through a Facebook conversation held at the city hall briefing room on the same day, "We decided to expand the issuance of Yongin Y-Point to serve as a support pillar to prevent small business owners, who are the main actors of the local economy, from collapsing amid the prolonged COVID-19 situation."

The city expects that if this plan is approved, the issuance amount of Yongin Y-Point, originally 57 billion KRW this year, will increase to 147 billion KRW, providing great help to small business owners in the area who are struggling due to decreased sales.

According to the city, from January to May this year, more than 240,000 citizens newly subscribed to the local currency, and 70.8 billion KRW has already been used in the local commercial district.

In particular, since disaster basic income and emergency disaster relief funds began to be distributed in April, card issuance surged, with the recharge amount exceeding 9.9 billion KRW in May alone.

This is interpreted as citizens continuing to use local currency even after exhausting the support funds.

The places where citizens used local currency the most were general restaurants (32.3%), followed by academy registrations (14.4%), and hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies (11.2%).

Mayor Baek explained, "We requested the government to issue additional local currency to help the local economy regain vitality."

Yongin Y-Point can be used at small businesses with sales under 1 billion KRW, and currently, there are about 34,000 affiliated stores. As of the end of May, 287,019 local currency cards have been issued.

Recently, the city has actively promoted the revitalization of the local commercial district by issuing a total of 57.7 billion KRW in Yongin Y-Point, including 42.2 billion KRW from Gyeonggi Province’s disaster basic income, 9.2 billion KRW from the government’s emergency disaster relief fund, and 6.3 billion KRW from temporary living support funds for low-income households.

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