Oh Se-hoon: "Government and Local Governments Must Establish a Cooperative System to Block COVID-19 Regardless of Party"

Mayor Oh's Policy Speech at Seoul City Council's 302nd Extraordinary Session... "Please Actively Cooperate in Processing the 2nd Supplementary Budget Proposal" Request

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] "Regardless of political party, the government and local governments must establish an extraordinary cooperative system to block the spread of COVID-19."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon emphasized this during his policy speech at the 302nd extraordinary session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council on the afternoon of the 27th. He said, "This is a critical moment when all policy measures must be mobilized to alleviate the difficulties of citizens," adding, "It has been 1 year and 7 months since the outbreak of COVID-19, but we are still passing through a tunnel with no end in sight. Citizens' daily lives have come to a halt, and small business owners and self-employed individuals have been pushed to the brink."

He also requested the council's cooperation on the second supplementary budget. Mayor Oh stated, "We prepared the first supplementary budget on June 1 to address urgent livelihood and quarantine tasks throughout the city," and added, "As difficulties increase, I would like to explain the second supplementary budget aimed at stabilizing citizens' livelihoods and strengthening the social safety net, and ask for the council members' active cooperation."

The second supplementary budget includes 1.8557 trillion won for the COVID-19 coexistence national support fund, 14.8 billion won for livelihood benefits following the abolition of the support obligation criteria, 26 billion won for the second Hope Work support project, 16.9 billion won for emergency welfare support funds, 22.3 billion won for additional issuance of Seoul Love gift certificates, 99.8 billion won for the Seoul Disaster Management Fund, and 25.4 billion won for living support expenses for COVID-19 quarantined individuals.

Mayor Oh explained, "The focus was on policies to block the spread of COVID-19 early and support livelihoods and the economy," adding, "We maximized the use of available resources such as funds and also carried out expenditure restructuring within the possible scope."

Earlier, Kim In-ho, Chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, emphasized strengthening the quarantine stance in his opening remarks. Chairman Kim said, "According to the recent quarantine stance, the temperature of citizens is also changing," and added, "Showing indiscriminate leniency invites danger. Seoul must first tighten the reins and create a flawless quarantine atmosphere so that citizens can find grounds to endure this pain. A reorganization of Seoul's quarantine measures is necessary."

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