Seoul City Launches Online Public Voting for 'Youth Autonomous Budget' Proposed by Young People

Over 650 Seoul Youth Citizen Committee Members Deliberated 139 Times Over 5 Months, Proposing 82 Policies
Support for Youth Mental Health, Establishment of Social Safety Nets for Artists... Priorities Decided by Citizen Vote

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 20th that it will conduct an online public vote through Seoul’s M-Voting platform until the 27th for 82 policies under the ‘2022 Seoul Youth Autonomous Budget,’ which are planned and proposed by youth themselves and finalized by citizens’ votes.

The 82 policies were planned through a five-month deliberation process by over 650 Seoul Youth Citizen Committee members. After prioritizing through this public vote, the final decisions will be made at the Seoul Youth Citizen Assembly held on Saturday, September 11.

The Seoul Youth Citizen Committee members are citizen committee members appointed to a participatory organization formed to solve social issues based on the autonomous participation of youth. They proposed various policy tasks through 139 sessions of policy workshops, subcommittee meetings, and steering committee meetings on 20 subtopics across seven divisions including climate environment, labor economy, culture and arts, social safety net, housing, participatory education, and equality and human rights. The subtopics include resource circulation, workplace rights, artists’ rights, network formation, tenant rights, youth life education, and gender.

Among the total 82 policy projects subject to this online public vote, 10 projects are city administration proposal types, and 72 projects are district proposal types.

The public vote is open to all Seoul citizens via the M-Voting website and smartphone app. Voting is conducted separately for Seoul Youth Citizen Committee members and general citizens, and similarly, city administration proposal types and district proposal types are voted on separately with rankings tallied for each.

The voting results will be finalized as the ‘2022 Youth Autonomous Budget Proposal’ through the ‘2021 Seoul Youth Citizen Assembly’ online video conference on September 11. The budget proposal will be submitted to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metropolitan Council. After review, it will be reflected in next year’s budget.

Kim Hong-chan, Head of the Youth Policy Division at the Seoul Future Youth Planning Team, said, “This 2022 Youth Autonomous Budget public vote is an opportunity to gather citizens’ opinions on projects proposed by youth citizen committee members after about five months of deliberation,” adding, “We hope many will participate with interest and support so that the issues youth are experiencing can be reflected in policies and city administration.”

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