Next Year's Disaster Safety Budget Pre-Consultation Plan Confirmed... Requested Amount 23.1 Trillion Won, 16% Increase from This Year

30-Day Preliminary Consultation Notice to Ministry of Economy and Finance... 12.1 Trillion KRW for Social Disasters and Safety Accidents, 5.5 Trillion KRW for Natural Disasters

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it has notified the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 30th of the 2022 Disaster Safety Budget Pre-Consultation Plan, aimed at enhancing the investment efficiency of government disaster safety projects, after review by the Central Safety Management Committee.

Next year's disaster safety budget request, excluding research and development (R&D) projects, totals 23.1 trillion KRW (394 projects) from all central administrative agencies, marking a 16.2% increase compared to this year's disaster safety budget of 19.9 trillion KRW.

By sector, social disasters and safety accidents account for 12.1 trillion KRW (52.2%), natural disasters 5.5 trillion KRW (24.0%), and common areas covering multiple disaster types such as disaster relief and recovery requested 5.5 trillion KRW (23.8%). By disaster type, requests include 3.7 trillion KRW (15.9%) for wind and flood damage, 3.9 trillion KRW (16.7%) for road traffic disasters and accidents, 2.5 trillion KRW (11.0%) for railway traffic disasters and accidents, and 1.3 trillion KRW (5.8%) for workplace industrial accidents.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety selected key investment disaster and accident types based on analysis of past damage status, recent risk factors that have been the focus of issues, and future risk forecasts to prepare this pre-consultation plan. It comprehensively considered the government's disaster safety policy direction, evaluation results of disaster safety projects based on project performance, and opinions from relevant ministries to determine investment directions and project-specific investment priorities.

Furthermore, to conduct in-depth and objective project reviews, 48 private experts specializing in disaster and accident types such as wind and flood damage and infectious diseases participated. To strengthen consultations on the necessity of investments with project-managing ministries, ministry briefing sessions were expanded compared to the previous year.

As a result of reviewing investment priorities, 158 projects were selected for increased investment, 197 projects for maintained investment, and 39 projects for reduced investment. Among the projects with increased investment, 39 core projects closely related to public safety and daily life and recently highlighted disaster and accident prevention were separately selected.

Among the four major investment directions of the disaster safety budget, to proactively prepare for new disasters, key investment projects were selected including the operation of an infectious disease emergency situation room and rapid response team (27.6 billion KRW), support for local government livestock epidemic prevention equipment and medicines (125.3 billion KRW), comprehensive maintenance of residential areas prone to wind and flood damage and other disaster risk area maintenance projects (547.2 billion KRW), and infrastructure projects tailored for climate change vulnerable groups (5 billion KRW).

To strengthen public safety in daily life, key investment projects include the three major projects to protect lives: traffic safety facility maintenance (248.9 billion KRW), improvement of hazardous facilities in small and medium workplaces to prevent industrial accidents (519.6 billion KRW), suicide prevention projects such as focused management of high-risk groups (50.9 billion KRW), and support projects for sexual violence victims (39 billion KRW).

To enhance the safety of infrastructure and living facilities, key investment projects include repair and reinforcement of aging road bridges and tunnels (710.1 billion KRW), improvement of general railway facilities and equipment (1.0827 trillion KRW), construction and reinforcement of embankments and drainage structures on national rivers (470 billion KRW), safety enhancement of multipurpose dams (13.8 billion KRW), and fire safety performance reinforcement of multi-use establishments (45.9 billion KRW).

Additionally, to expand the national responsibility for public safety, key investment projects include operation of emergency safety alert services for solitary elderly and severely disabled persons (30.2 billion KRW), operation of regional specialized trauma centers (69.8 billion KRW), and improvement projects for child and elderly protection zones such as installation of speed enforcement equipment (223.1 billion KRW).

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety analyzed the similarity and duplication of government disaster safety projects intensively to enhance the efficiency of government-wide safety investments in this year's pre-consultation plan. It identified four inter-ministerial collaboration tasks and nine intra-ministry collaboration tasks and notified each ministry and the Ministry of Economy and Finance accordingly.

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol stated, “To minimize casualties from disasters and accidents that occur repeatedly every year and to effectively prevent unexpected new disasters, strengthening proactive safety investments is essential. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will actively strive to ensure that finances are concentrated on important and urgent fields and projects for public safety.”

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