Gyeonggi-do Merchants Association: "Lee Jae-myung's Basic Income, a Lifeline for Small Business Owners... Not Populism"

Full Support for Governor Lee Jae-myung's Pledge to Provide Basic Income through Expiring Local Currency in the Next Government

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The executive committee of the Gyeonggi Province Merchants Association (Chairman Lee Chung-hwan) has expressed full support for Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung's pledge to provide 'basic income in the form of expiring local currency' in the next government.

The executive committee of the provincial merchants association gathered at 1 p.m. on the 26th at the Suwon Motgol Market Merchants Education Center and collectively issued a statement welcoming and supporting Governor Lee Jae-myung's recently announced pledge to provide 'basic income in the form of expiring local currency.'

Earlier, on the 22nd, Governor Lee announced a pledge to "provide core basic income for fair growth in the form of expiring local currency during the next government's term."

Through the pledge announcement, Governor Lee emphasized, "Basic income combined with expiring local currency is the core of the fair growth strategy," adding, "It is a policy to alleviate income polarization, the greatest challenge of our time, while also expanding consumption, supporting small business owners, and mitigating sales polarization to revitalize the local economy and neighborhood markets."

He also added, "If 40 years ago there had been just 7,000 won per month, the misfortune of injuring an arm while working in a factory to pay for academy fees and being unable to serve in the military would not have happened," and "If the Songpa three mothers had just 300,000 won per month, their families would not have made extreme choices, and the COVID-era Jean Valjean would not have stolen eggs out of hunger."

On this day, Chairman Lee Chung-hwan and the executive committee appealed through their statement, saying, "Today, the majority of self-employed and small business owners have fallen into poverty, buried under debt," and "Their livelihoods have become increasingly devastated, and they are crying out in despair due to the compounded hardships caused by COVID-19."

They continued, "The disaster basic income provided twice last year and this year by Gyeonggi Province brought great vitality and hope to traditional markets and neighborhood economies, which small business owners who experienced it firsthand felt like rain on parched land," and asserted, "'Basic income provided in the form of expiring local currency' is not a handout or populism, but a genuine welfare economic policy."

They further advised, "We, who personally experienced a boom comparable to a national holiday in a short period through disaster basic income, are witnesses," and "In addition to universal basic income and youth basic income, partial basic incomes for farmers, the elderly, children and adolescents, the disabled, cultural artists, and other sectors including crisis regions in local areas must be provided as 'expiring local currency' to revitalize traditional markets, small business owners, and neighborhood economies."

The executive committee also stated, "We will continue to do our best to actively represent the voices of traditional markets, neighborhood commercial districts, and the field."

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