Seoul's 25 Districts Resolve to Distribute 200 Billion Won in Disaster Relief Funds... Seoul City to Match with 300 Billion Won

Discussion at Seoul Special City District Mayors' Association Regular Meeting
Proposal to Secure 200 Billion Won at Autonomous District Level and Present to Seoul City First... Consensus on Selective Payment Method

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Council of District Mayors has resolved to create and distribute a ‘Seoul City-District Level Disaster Relief Fund’ by having the 25 autonomous districts raise 200 billion won in resources while simultaneously requesting Seoul City to allocate and support funds exceeding the scale of district budgets.

On the 25th, the council held its 157th regular meeting via a non-face-to-face video conference attended by district mayors, Seoul City officials, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport representatives, where this resolution was made. Dobong-gu reported that Seoul City agreed to bear 300 billion won.

At this regular meeting, nine review and resolution agenda items submitted by the 25 districts, three cooperation matters from Seoul City, one other discussion item, and one other report item were deliberated. In particular, the ‘Seoul City-District Disaster Relief Fund Payment Promotion’ plan was a key topic of discussion.

Lee Dong-jin, Chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council of District Mayors (Mayor of Dobong-gu), stated, “Considering that the government is promoting the 4th disaster relief fund to support small business owners and self-employed individuals, and other local governments are also pursuing their own disaster relief fund support, there was mutual consensus that Seoul City should also promote disaster relief fund payments together with the districts.”

The council agreed to discuss the scale of resources per district separately once the payment targets are confirmed, while also considering linking the payment timing to the government’s finalized detailed plan for the 4th disaster relief fund support.

Regarding the payment method, additional opinions were raised that reasonable criteria should be established to ensure fairness and prevent unreasonable situations among recipients across districts, and once the criteria are set, payments should be made uniformly across districts to avoid dissatisfaction among residents.

Furthermore, it was suggested that the payment targets be decided after separate discussions among districts focusing on sectors excluded from the government’s 4th disaster relief fund support and those severely economically affected by COVID-19, based on a selective payment method.

Chairman Lee Dong-jin explained, “Considering the vacancy in the Seoul mayor’s office, this disaster relief fund is a measure for the districts to first gather opinions and propose them to Seoul City to alleviate the economic difficulties of small business owners and self-employed individuals to some extent. We will promptly decide on detailed matters such as payment timing, targets, and amounts, while carefully working with the executive members to establish criteria that prevent dissatisfaction among districts.”

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