Vice Minister of Economy and Finance: "Ensuring Financial Support for 3rd New Town and Other Real Estate Supply Plans Without Disruption"

Ando-geol, 2nd Vice Minister of Ministry of Economy and Finance, to Hold 'SOC Budget Council' on 29th

Ando-geol, 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. (Photo by Ministry of Economy and Finance)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Ando-geol, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, announced on the 29th that fiscal support will be strengthened next year to ensure that the housing supply plan for the 3rd phase new towns in the metropolitan area does not face setbacks.

On the morning of the 29th, Vice Minister Ahn held a budget consultation meeting on social overhead capital (SOC) with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and related agencies at Sejong Smart City.

At the meeting, he stated that the budget will be allocated focusing on four areas: national balanced development and metropolitan economic zone promotion, housing market stabilization and residential welfare support, expansion of citizen safety and life-experience SOC services, and full-scale national land innovation investment through digital and low-carbon SOC transition.

First, support will be provided to ensure timely construction of the metropolitan area GTX A, B, and C lines. Early project initiation preparation, such as preliminary feasibility studies for leading projects among non-metropolitan metropolitan railroads included in the '4th National Railroad Network Plan (2021-2030)' for Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam, Chungcheong, Daegu-Gyeongbuk, and Gwangju-Jeonnam regions, will be supported. The project areas will be selected by next month.

Additionally, fiscal support will be provided to ensure the smooth implementation of already announced housing supply plans, including the 3rd phase new towns centered in the metropolitan area. To supply 1 million public rental housing units by next year as planned, an additional 210,000 units must be supplied next year alone, making budget support inevitable. The budget support level for strengthening support for vulnerable housing groups will also be increased. Efforts will be made to realize housing benefits, extend the support for Jeonse deposit loans (annual interest rate 1.2%) for young workers in small and medium enterprises for two more years until the end of 2023, and newly introduce interest-free monthly rent loans for youth.

Other budget supports include ▲ installation of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in major SOC infrastructure such as railway vehicles (including the establishment of 77 tunnel remote control systems by next year) ▲ expansion of safety reinforcement and maintenance project budgets in the road sector by more than 5% compared to 1.5 trillion won this year ▲ promotion of national pilot smart cities such as Sejong and Busan.

In the case of Busan, after the first move-in scheduled for December, additional infrastructure such as an artificial intelligence (AI) data hub platform and the establishment of a private SPC will be promoted until the first half of next year.

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