Geoje-si's Excellent Low Birthrate Response Policy Awarded the 'Presidential Award'

On the 30th, Geoje City received the Presidential Award at the Low Birthrate Response Best Practice Competition hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and is taking a commemorative photo. (Photo by Geoje City Hall)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kang Sharon] Geoje City in Gyeongnam announced on the 31st that it received the Presidential Award at the '2020 Local Government Low Birthrate Response Best Practice Competition' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and was granted a special subsidy of 150 million KRW as a performance reward.

This competition aimed to discover and spread best practices for low birthrate response. After the first round of self-assessment by cities and provinces on 226 policies nationwide and the second round of evaluation by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 11 local governments were selected as final candidates to participate.

The city received favorable reviews for its project "Our Children's Healthy Meal with Added Social Value," which addressed the difficulties faced by dual-income couples who had to bring individual lunchboxes to elementary school vacation care classes. The project linked a preliminary social enterprise with young farmers to supply healthy lunchboxes made from local food, providing practical childcare support.

The initiative was evaluated as a policy with high resident satisfaction by achieving three goals at once: responding through a public-private cooperation network to overcome low birthrate, contributing to farmers' income improvement by using local food, and realizing social value.

Byun Kwang-yong, Mayor of Geoje City, said, "Despite the difficult conditions of low birthrate and population decline caused by the prolonged recession in the shipbuilding industry, we will create tangible results through infrastructure expansion and low birthrate response projects, and bring a fresh breeze to overcome the low birthrate."

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