[2021 Budget] From Childcare and Disability Welfare Support to K-pop and Flying Taxis, Unique Projects Draw Attention (Comprehensive)

Government Announces '60 Selected Unique Projects to Improve Citizens' Lives'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The government's next year's ultra-super budget includes a variety of distinctive projects ranging from expanding welfare for dual-income families with young children and people with severe disabilities to supporting the K-pop industry and developing flying taxis. It also plans to assist small business owners and unemployed youth struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to revitalize rural farming and fishing villages through a "live-in" program.

On the 1st, the government announced the 2021 budget proposal along with the introduction of "60 distinctive projects to improve citizens' lives."

◆ Full-scale response to low birthrate...reducing childcare burden and easing medical expenses= First, to address the low birthrate, the government significantly increased the budget for various projects aimed at reducing childcare burdens for dual-income families and mothers. The budget for the maternal and newborn health care support project for childbirth families increased by 18.3%, from 95.9 billion KRW this year to 114.3 billion KRW, dispatching health care workers to each household to assist with postpartum recovery, nutrition management, newborn care, and household chores. The eligibility criteria expanded from 100% to 150% of the median income.

The volume, support hours, and support rate of part-time childcare services will also be improved to reduce the childcare burden on dual-income families. The number of supported households will increase from 82,000 this year to 84,300 next year, and the government support hours limit will rise from 720 hours per year to 840 hours per year. The related budget increased by 10.3% to 155.4 billion KRW compared to this year.

The scope of medical expense support for congenital anomaly diagnosis and surgery will be expanded from diagnosis within 84 days after birth and hospitalization/surgery within 6 months after birth to diagnosis, hospitalization, and surgery within 1 year after birth. The budget doubled from 1.1 billion KRW to 2.2 billion KRW. Income eligibility is limited to households with less than 180% of the median income, with support capped at 5 million KRW per person for congenital anomaly cases.

A new budget was also allocated for supporting people with severe disabilities. A transportation voucher of 50,000 KRW per month will be provided for 9 months (with a 3-month preparation period) to 6,300 people with severe disabilities who incur additional transportation costs despite wage gaps with non-disabled people. A separate complex healing center (tentative name) for people with developmental and severe disabilities and their families will be established this year.

To reduce the cost burden on cancer patients, 7.8 billion KRW of new budget will be used to increase day care beds at the National Cancer Center from 37 to 124 beds, enabling same-day outpatient treatment. Pneumococcal vaccination for the elderly will be expanded from 256 public health centers to private medical institutions, increasing the related budget from 4.3 billion KRW this year to 9.3 billion KRW. The number of vaccinated individuals is expected to rise from 450,000 to 520,000.

Ten additional women- and child-exclusive investigation rooms will be added to prosecution offices and 35 to police stations to prevent secondary damage during investigations of sexual violence and child abuse and to create a human rights-friendly testimony environment. The budget for system upgrades, including linking and analyzing various social security big data to predict and detect children at risk of abuse, increased from 200 million KRW this year to 1.6 billion KRW next year. The police's "domestic violence report information" will be linked to the "e-Child Happiness Support System," and the abuse prediction model will be diversified to improve the prediction rate of at-risk children.

On the 12th, job seekers visiting the Seoul Western Employment Welfare Plus Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul, received consultations on unemployment benefits and employment. According to the "July Employment Trends" announced by Statistics Korea on the same day, the number of employed people last month was 27,106,000, a decrease of 277,000 compared to a year ago. This marks the fifth consecutive month of decline, the longest streak in 11 years since the global financial crisis caused an eight-month consecutive decrease from January to August 2009. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

◆ Support for vocational high school students' employment in SMEs...expanded budget for reemployment of career-interrupted women= A budget of 174.9 billion KRW, a 58.0% increase from this year, was allocated to support vocational high school students' employment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to nurture experts into masters. The employment linkage incentive was increased from 4 million KRW to 5 million KRW, and the mandatory employment period was extended from 6 months to 12 months.

Internship subsidies to expand work experience and continuous employment for career-interrupted women increased from 3 million KRW this year to 3.8 million KRW, and an employment incentive of 800,000 KRW was newly introduced for companies that retain employees for more than 6 months after regular hiring. The budget for creating youth self-reliance villages, matching youth seeking new opportunities in rural areas with the cities that need them, increased by 750% to 7.65 billion KRW. Twelve additional self-reliance villages will be established by next year, supporting settlement and education through youth self-reliance activation programs.

Additionally, 5.5 billion KRW will support incubating facilities such as production facilities and office spaces for one-person media creators and startups, and 460 million KRW will be allocated for customized comprehensive support services for small merchants struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To turn neighborhood long-established stores into nationwide attractions, 5.85 billion KRW of new budget was confirmed to select 200 "Hundred-Year Stores" and 500 "Hundred-Year Small Merchants," providing various consulting, promotion, and sales channel opportunities. The scale of support for SMEs to hire highly experienced researchers, providing 50% of annual salary (up to 50 million KRW per year) for up to 3 years per company for one person, will increase from 229 to 278 people. A budget of 5.1 billion KRW, a 240% increase from this year, will be used to foster 30 global tourism companies in their 30s to revitalize the tourism industry depressed by COVID-19.

◆ Taking K-pop global...creating tourist attractions nationwide= The government will invest 29 billion KRW to create an online K-pop concert hall for vivid online viewing of K-pop performances. Two billion KRW will be allocated to build studios capable of producing online K-pop concerts, and 9 billion KRW for supporting concert production.

Digital content allowing domestic audiences to appreciate overseas cultural heritage will be developed with a budget of 450 million KRW, and immersive content for palace night programs will be produced and provided online with 950 million KRW. This aims to provide cultural services to groups who find it difficult to visit in person due to time and space constraints.

A new budget of 8.9 billion KRW was allocated for remodeling abandoned tunnels, closed schools, and closed inns into regional representative tourist attractions. Idle facilities will be reused to create lodging facilities linked with local unique stories and tourism resources, and abandoned tunnels will be reborn as public history education and experience spaces.

Thirteen national local museums in Gyeongju, Cheongju, Buyeo, and other areas will be branded based on regional characteristics and history to develop into representative Korean cultural museums rich in attractions. A "National Women's Museum" will be built to reexamine women's lives and roles in history and to promote gender equality awareness.

Support will be provided to supply standardized foreign language menus to Korean restaurants domestically and abroad. A total of 300 million KRW will be invested to distribute foreign language menus with consistent and unified Korean food menu names to 3,000 Korean restaurants domestically and 3,000 overseas.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

◆ Support for living in rural areas for 6 months...accelerating improvement of innovation city conditions= Next year, the "6-month living experience program in rural areas" will be expanded to a scale of 4.08 billion KRW. This program supports young and middle-aged people hoping to return to farming and rural areas by allowing them to live in their desired rural area for 6 months before actual relocation, experiencing farming work, with temporary housing and training expenses (300,000 KRW per month). For 400 households wishing to return to farming and rural areas, 300,000 KRW per month will be paid for up to 6 months if they meet the work condition of at least 15 days per month. Temporary housing facilities will be established in 240 locations across 80 cities and counties nationwide.

To improve living conditions in innovation cities, projects to build complex innovation centers (28.7 billion KRW) and child- and family-specialized living SOC facilities (45 billion KRW) will be promoted. The government expects these to contribute to increasing family relocation rates and revitalizing local communities.

Complex innovation centers integrating cultural, sports, welfare facilities, and startup company spaces will be installed in 10 innovation cities, one per city, totaling 10 centers. Ten living SOC facilities such as children's job experience centers and digital experience centers will also be established.

To promote sustainable fishing villages and fisheries, the "Fisheries Public Interest Direct Payment System" will be expanded. This system provides direct payments when fisheries fulfill public interest obligations such as resource protection and eco-friendliness.

◆ Making flying taxis a reality...establishing AI surveillance systems= The government allocated a large-scale budget for projects that apply various new technologies throughout society. Representative projects include special drones for wildfire suppression (unmanned aerial vehicles, 4.6 billion KRW) and artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance systems (196.8 billion KRW). The distribution of training equipment and construction of training grounds incorporating cutting-edge 4th industrial revolution technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and big data (53.8 billion KRW) will also be promoted.

A new budget of 7.1 billion KRW was allocated for the "Smart AI Intensive Care Unit Management Project." Of this, 5.3 billion KRW will be invested in developing and conducting demonstration research on the AI-based Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). CDSS is a medical information technology system that supports clinical decisions such as patient diagnosis, treatment, and prescription. Through AI-based CDSS, data such as electrocardiograms, pulse, and respiration of ICU patients will be analyzed to predict crises and assess patient severity.

Additionally, new projects include ▲overseas location-based customized counseling (2.7 billion KRW) ▲mobile verification system for resident registration cards (2.24 billion KRW) ▲cultural heritage management using drones (1.5 billion KRW) ▲construction of the government and public institution knowledge information platform "Digital Jiphyeonjeon" (600 million KRW).

The budget for the "Flying Taxi" implementation project was significantly increased from 1 billion KRW this year to 11.8 billion KRW next year. Infrastructure support will be provided for new aircraft demonstrations, including landing and takeoff site equipment, aircraft introduction, and flight path monitoring equipment.

A budget of 158.6 billion KRW was allocated to convert power meters in 5 million apartments to intelligent systems (AMI) by 2022, and budgets were also expanded for ▲supporting R&D strategies to secure excellent patents (28.6 billion KRW) ▲mobile baggage declaration (1.7 billion KRW) ▲expanding operation of domestic medical device education and training centers within hospitals (1.6 billion KRW).

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