Joo Ji-hoon: "Surplus Funds Should Be Reflected in Next Year's Budget to Support Small Business Owners"

[Jeonju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Han-ho] Jo Ji-hoon, former director of the Jeonbuk Economic Promotion Agency and a declared candidate for next year’s Jeonju mayoral election, proposed that Jeonju City actively include the unappropriated surplus funds in the 2022 budget to fully support local small business owners.

In a statement titled “Proposal for Full Support of Small Business Owners Using Jeonju City’s Unappropriated Surplus Funds,” former director Jo pointed out, “The unappropriated surplus was 96.2 billion KRW in 2019, 105.3 billion KRW in 2020, averaging 113.2 billion KRW over the past five years.” He added, “Nevertheless, Jeonju City allocated only 52.7 billion KRW as unappropriated surplus in the 2022 main budget, which is about half of the actual unappropriated surplus remaining over the past five years.”

Especially, former director Jo stated, “While local governments need to reserve part of their revenue to prepare for financial difficulties, leaving a substantial amount of unappropriated surplus every year as a routine practice inevitably invites criticism of undersupplying administrative services and inefficient budget management.” He continued, “Above all, maintaining surplus funds in local government while small business owners, whose livelihoods have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic for over two years, are right in front of us is a complacent act.”

Former director Jo argued, “Many small business owners have endured the COVID-19 crisis through loans, but now they are in a situation where even the interest is difficult to bear. Some want to close their businesses but cannot even do so due to loan repayment issues. Therefore, a groundbreaking budget expansion is necessary to prepare and implement disaster relief measures equivalent to an emergency situation.”

Small business owners account for more than 90% of Jeonju’s enterprises and are essentially the driving force of the local economy, so their difficulties equate to a crisis for the regional economy.

Jo Ji-hoon emphasized, “Since the government has used all available resources due to the COVID-19 situation and is demanding active fiscal spending, it is time for local governments, which should be the frontline support for small business owners, to actively invest their surplus funds.”

Jeonju=Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Han-ho stonepeak@asiae.co.kr

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