Hampyeong-gun Surpasses 400 Billion Won Budget for the First Time in History... 12.1% Increase Compared to Last Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Hampyeong-gun, Jeollanam-do has entered the era of a 400 billion won budget.

Despite the significant decrease in domestic taxes and local allocation taxes due to the impact of COVID-19 and other factors, the public perception that maintaining a budget size similar to previous years would be difficult has been completely overturned.

Hampyeong-gun announced on the 17th that it has finalized a budget of 433.8 billion won for the next year and submitted it to the Hampyeong County Council.

This amount is 46.9 billion won (12.1%) higher than this year's main budget of 386.9 billion won.

The general account is 420.3 billion won, an increase of 50.7 billion won (13.7%) compared to this year.

The special account decreased by about 3.8 billion won from 17.3 billion won this year to 13.5 billion won.

This budget focuses on revitalizing the local economy, which has been depressed due to COVID-19, by concentrating funds on transportation, industry, and agriculture, livestock, and fisheries sectors.

The county explained that the budget for health, welfare, and environment sectors, which are directly related to residents' lives, was also significantly increased based on an expansionary fiscal investment policy.

By sector, the agriculture, forestry, marine, and fisheries sector accounted for the largest portion of the total budget at 119.3 billion won (27.5%).

Following this were ▲ social welfare sector 91.1 billion won (21%) ▲ environment sector 51.6 billion won (11.9%) ▲ culture and tourism sector 27.9 billion won (6.4%) ▲ industry, small and medium enterprises, and energy sector 18.6 billion won (4.3%).

In particular, the industry, small and medium enterprises, and energy sector and the culture and tourism sector, which the county is most focused on, recorded budget growth rates of 40.9% and 39.7% respectively compared to this year, giving related projects more momentum going forward.

Major project budgets include ▲ Hampyeong-eup, Hakgyo-myeon, Wolya-myeon sewerage priority management maintenance project (1.696 billion won) ▲ Hampyeong Cheonji Hanwoo brand development support project (100 million won) ▲ Hampyeong Cheonji Hanwoo pedigree preservation incentive support project (132 million won) ▲ high value-added item cultivation infrastructure project (150 million won), among others.

Also included as new policies for next year are the aged water supply network maintenance project (7.762 billion won) and the rural village sewerage maintenance project (2.561 billion won).

The county also reflected the 29.7 billion won budget secured this year from national and provincial government competitive projects, such as the Hampyeong-eup urban regeneration New Deal project (3.575 billion won) and the Hampyeong-eup rural hub revitalization project (1.3 billion won), in this budget proposal, igniting the foundation for regional growth engines.

Lee Sang-ik, the mayor of Hampyeong-gun, said, “We prepared next year’s budget by minimizing the carryover budget that occurred annually, reducing current expenses through expenditure restructuring, and suppressing wasteful spending as much as possible. Since the main budget has surpassed 400 billion won for the first time in history, we will contribute promptly to regional development and the welfare of residents through efficient budget execution.”

Meanwhile, Hampyeong-gun’s budget proposal for next year is expected to be finalized next month after deliberation at the 2nd regular meeting of the Hampyeong County Council, which begins on the 23rd.

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