Gyeongbuk Province Opens '5 Trillion Won Era' for National Investment Budget Next Year... 13.7% Increase from This Year

Securing Major SOC Budgets Including Mungyeong~Gimcheon Inland Railway and Yeongilman Transversal Bridge

On the 2nd, the 2021 budget bill amounting to 558 trillion won (an increase of 2.2 trillion won compared to the government proposal) was passed at the National Assembly plenary session. This is the first time in six years since 2014, the first year of the implementation of the National Assembly Advancement Act, that the budget bill has been processed within the legal deadline (December 2).
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] Gyeongsangbuk-do announced on the 3rd that the amount reflected for Gyeongbuk Province's national investment budget request projects in the '2021 Government Budget' approved at the National Assembly plenary session on the 2nd is 5.0808 trillion KRW.

The total amount of national funds secured by Gyeongbuk Province is 9.7162 trillion KRW, which is the sum of the reflected amount for the requested projects of 5.0808 trillion KRW and 4.6354 trillion KRW in national funds for general subsidy projects excluding local allocation tax.

The province reflected 4.9112 trillion KRW in national funds in the government budget proposal and increased 169.6 billion KRW for a total of 85 projects, including new R&D projects and SOC projects, through the National Assembly budget review process.

The national budget secured for 2021 increased by 614.4 billion KRW (13.7%) compared to 4.4664 trillion KRW this year. This is a significantly larger increase than the government budget (558 trillion KRW) growth rate (8.9%), which Gyeongsangbuk-do explained is due to the establishment of a systematic national fund securing system that proactively responded despite the difficult environment caused by COVID-19.

In 2018, the year before the inauguration of the 7th elected governor, the national investment budget was only 3.5579 trillion KRW, but in 2020, the actual first year of inauguration, 4.4664 trillion KRW was secured, and finally next year, it will open the 5 trillion KRW era in just two years of inauguration with 5.0808 trillion KRW, an increase of 42.8% compared to 2018.

In particular, with the basic design budget of 2 billion KRW reflected for the Yeongilman Transversal Section Highway (Donghaean Bridge), which was selected as one of the 30 leading projects for metropolitan economic zone development in 2008 and exempted from preliminary feasibility study, the construction of the Donghaean Bridge is expected to be in full swing.

Additionally, the inland railway project between Mungyeong and Gimcheon, with 3.5 billion KRW reflected, is expected to start immediately once it passes the preliminary feasibility study to be announced soon. Also, securing a budget of 9 billion KRW for the establishment project of the Innovative Nuclear Technology Research Institute, a core future food industry of Gyeongbuk, is also encouraging.

The characteristic of the budget secured by Gyeongsangbuk-do for next year is that it secured a large amount of R&D budget for new projects in various fields and future food industries, as well as SOC. The new projects secured as national investment budget for 2021 are 57 projects with 135.2 billion KRW, and a total project cost of 57.861 trillion KRW (national funds 34.907 trillion KRW) is expected to be invested annually. This year's new projects were 36 projects with 91 billion KRW.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, "Next year's national investment budget is not concentrated only on SOC as before, but R&D projects for job creation and budgets for regional industry restructuring are evenly reflected, enabling us to properly discover core projects that will lead the region," and added, "I will invest actively in Gyeongbuk's future to create a solid foundation for Gyeongbuk to leap forward without wasting a single won of the hard-earned national budget."

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