[2022 Budget] 'Late Lee Kun-hee Collection' in One Place... Embracing Abused Children and Abandoned Animals

Government Selects and Announces First '20 Field-Responsive Budgets' Actively Reflecting On-Site Voices
Ministry of Economy and Finance Travels 7,600km to Identify Needs... Actively Reflects in Expansionary Fiscal Policy

On the 21st, citizens visiting the "Sharing the Great Cultural Heritage - Exhibition of Masterpieces Donated by the Late Chairman Lee Kun-hee" held at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, are viewing the exhibits. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The government allocated 5.8 billion KRW of national budget to gather and exhibit the donated items of the late Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Group, in one place. This project was ranked first in the 'Field-Responsive Budget' category, which was selected by internal voting at the Budget Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance as the budget that best captured and reflected on-site demands. Alongside this, projects for responding to and supporting child abuse cases and for neutering and promoting adoption of abandoned animals were also selected as major responsive budgets.

On the 31st, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced the '20 Field-Responsive Budgets'. These budgets are projects collected by senior officials and staff of the Budget Office who directly visited sites with demand during the national budget formulation period, listened to stakeholders' requests, and reflected them in the budget. This is the first year such a separate selection has been made. A ministry official explained, "When we estimated the total distance traveled nationwide for budget formulation, it reached 7,600 km. Listening to voices from the field and reflecting them in the budget is very important, so we organized this separately."

One of the most notable budgets is the newly allocated 5.8 billion KRW budget to manage the donated items of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The donated items include approximately 11,023 pieces, including 60 nationally designated cultural assets such as National Treasure No. 216, Geomjae Jeong Seon's 'Inwangjesaekdo'. On-site stakeholders expressed the need to provide an opportunity to view these items all in one place. Accordingly, the Ministry of Economy and Finance included 3.3 billion KRW in next year’s budget for registration, research costs, and facility improvements for managing the donated items, and 2.5 billion KRW for public exhibitions and regional special exhibitions. This project also received the highest support with 46 votes in an excellent project vote among about 180 senior officials and staff of the Budget Office.

The budget for responding to child abuse victims, which was about 72.7 billion KRW this year, has been increased by 40.9% to 102.4 billion KRW for next year. Taking this opportunity, projects previously supported by the Crime Victim Protection Fund and Lottery Fund will be transferred to the general account of the Ministry of Health and Welfare to unify financial support channels, and the number of child protection specialized agencies will increase from 81 to 95. Child abuse victim shelters and group homes will also be expanded by 35 and 12 locations respectively. The project budget per child protection specialized agency and the number of children served will increase, and group homes will add one person per location, totaling 172 additional people. This project also ranked second with 43 votes in the internal vote.

Additionally, after gathering opinions through meetings with single-parent families, a total of 422.6 billion KRW worth of self-reliance programs were strengthened compared to last year’s 306.7 billion KRW, including support for 1,000 adolescent single parents with high self-reliance motivation (1.3 billion KRW) and income deductions (26.4 billion KRW) for labor and business income when selected as recipients of child-rearing expenses. The budget for supporting independent living for children aging out of care, which was 51.5 billion KRW this year, was increased by 77.9% to 91.6 billion KRW. New budgets of 3.7 billion KRW were allocated for age-specific tailored educational support and placement of psychological counselors for children of multicultural families. The budget supporting care for families with severe disabilities was also expanded by 124.1% from 21.6 billion KRW this year to 48.4 billion KRW.

Furthermore, to rescue and protect abandoned animals, the budget for supporting neutering surgeries for dogs and cats, adoption fees, and improvements to private animal protection facilities was increased by 113% from 5.3 billion KRW this year to 11.3 billion KRW. This project received 32 votes in the internal vote, ranking third in support. The financial system enabling small business owners to quickly obtain loans through non-face-to-face and online channels was a 200 million KRW project this year but has been expanded to 5.5 billion KRW in next year’s budget.

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