Local Love Gift Certificates Sold 3 Trillion Won by Lunar New Year Holiday... Exceeding 300 Billion Won Target

Government Plans to Sell 15 Trillion Won This Year... Gyeonggi 482.8 Billion Won, Incheon 398.4 Billion Won, Jeonbuk 267 Billion Won in Order

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The local love gift certificates issued by the government to revitalize the regional economy have sold 3 trillion won worth in just one and a half months, exceeding the initial target.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that from the 1st of last month until the Lunar New Year holiday on the 14th of this month, local love gift certificates were sold nationwide amounting to 3 trillion won, surpassing the target of 2.7 trillion won by 300 billion won.

This year, the issuance scale of local love gift certificates is 15 trillion won. To support the recovery of the struggling regional economy, the government planned to collaborate with local governments to sell 2.7 trillion won by the Lunar New Year holiday and 4.5 trillion won by March, the first quarter. By region, sales were in the order of Gyeonggi 482.8 billion won, Incheon 398.4 billion won, Jeonbuk 267 billion won, and Daejeon 240 billion won.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to support additional projects in the second half of the year with a matching fund of 6% national funds and 4% local funds, considering the rapid sales performance of local love gift certificates. Additional incentives will also be considered after performance evaluations of first-half sales results and best practices.

Meanwhile, as sales of local love gift certificates surge, the Ministry plans to operate a nationwide simultaneous crackdown period in March to prevent illegal distribution. For cases of illegal distribution such as exchanging without purchasing goods or services, fines of 10 million won for the first offense, 15 million won for the second, and 20 million won for the third can be imposed.

Furthermore, to analyze the economic effects of local love gift certificates, the Ministry will conduct multifaceted joint research with various research institutions and promote regular forums. Park Jae-min, Director of the Local Finance and Economy Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “We will continue to devise and implement various policies to revitalize the regional economy.”

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