[2021 Budget] 1.06 Trillion Won Support for Local Love Gift Certificates Issuance ... Focus on Digital Government Innovation

Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 2021 Budget Proposal of 56.8275 Trillion Won... 1.7 Trillion Won Increase from This Year
Significant Expansion of Budget for Recovery of Local Economy Affected by COVID-19 and Digital New Deal
Strengthening Disaster and Safety Accident Prevention and Management Including Enforcement in Child Protection Zones and Preparedness for Wind and Flood Disasters

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The government will significantly increase the issuance of local love gift certificates next year to revive the regional economy, which has been stagnated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also establish an IoT (Internet of Things)-based early warning system in disaster-prone areas to prevent disasters and safety accidents, and expand unmanned enforcement equipment in child protection zones.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 1st that the 2021 budget plan was set at a total of 56.8275 trillion won, a 2.3% increase from this year’s 55.5471 trillion won. Of this, excluding local allocation tax of 51.7646 trillion won and personnel and basic expenses of 378.4 billion won, the project budget is 4.6884 trillion won, which is a whopping 58.3% increase from this year’s 2.959 trillion won.

First, to stimulate local consumption and revive the regional economy, the Ministry plans to expand the issuance scale of local love gift certificates from 9 trillion won this year to 15 trillion won next year, allocating a budget of 1.0572 trillion won to support this. Additionally, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, 93.1 billion won will be allocated to operate 15,000 additional local quarantine and community jobs, and 235 billion won will be invested to newly establish a digital youth job project that provides jobs in new industry sectors for young people.

To foster substantial village enterprises, 10.4 billion won will be provided as subsidies to 305 village enterprises across 17 cities and provinces, and 1.5 billion won will be allocated to projects establishing public-private cooperation systems related to the social economy at the city, county, and district levels.

In terms of preventive disaster and safety management, the budget for maintaining steep slope collapse risk areas and flood and wind disaster living zones, where disasters such as typhoons and heavy rains are likely to occur, has been increased from 436.5 billion won this year to 511.9 billion won next year. This includes projects to install intelligent measurement sensors in old and hazardous facilities to build monitoring systems. Additionally, 11.3 billion won will be invested to establish a system that automatically notifies vehicle owners if their cars parked in riverside parking lots are at risk of flooding.

Furthermore, as a follow-up measure to the amended Road Traffic Act (Min-sik’s Law) implemented since December last year, 249.6 billion won has been allocated for traffic safety facility improvements such as installing unmanned traffic enforcement equipment in child protection zones, an increase of 72.9 billion won from this year. With the enforcement of the Child Safety Management Act (Hae-in’s Law) scheduled for November, 2.5 billion won has also been allocated to provide direct safety education to 70,000 workers at child-use facilities.

Not only for disaster prevention projects but also for disaster contingency funds, which serve as reserve funds in case of disasters, the budget has been significantly increased from 36 billion won this year to 200 billion won next year. This is a measure to ensure the stability of victims through prompt recovery support in case of damage to lives, houses, and agricultural and fishery facilities caused by natural disasters.

As part of the government’s Digital New Deal project, 174 billion won has been allocated to support the opening and utilization of public data. The government plans to rapidly open high-quality public data needed by the private sector and nurture talent in the data field through this.

205 billion won will be invested to build 5G wireless communication networks in national and public institutions to create a mobile work environment, conducting demonstration projects targeting ISPs and 10 institutions. Additionally, 53 billion won will be invested next year to fully convert the poor small-scale IT environments of local governments and public institutions to cloud operating environments, prioritizing the replacement of 10,000 urgently outdated devices.

Moreover, 2.2 billion won will be allocated to create support facilities and exchange spaces in areas where North Korean defectors and foreign residents are concentrated, and 1.4 billion won and 10.1 billion won will be invested respectively in the preservation and restoration project of the former Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Investigation Office and the construction of the Democracy and Human Rights Memorial Hall.

Lee In-jae, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "The 2021 budget plan prioritizes the safety of the people, supports the Korean New Deal, and focuses on revitalizing the regional economy. We will do our best during the National Assembly review stage to ensure that the government’s proposal is reflected as originally planned."

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