‘Child-Friendly’ Jinju City Invests 98.4 Billion Won in Childcare Budget, Increasing by 2.1 Billion Won from Previous Year

Enhancing Child Welfare, Improving Childcare Staff Treatment, and Expanding Public and National Childcare Centers

Jinju City Forest Public Children's Center Opens.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Jinju City in Gyeongnam announced on the 31st that it will invest 98.4 billion KRW in childcare projects in 2022 to create a childcare environment that is good for having and raising children.

Jinju City's childcare budget for the new year consists of 48.3 billion KRW in national funds, 33.4 billion KRW in provincial funds, and 16.7 billion KRW in city funds. This amount is an increase of 2.1 billion KRW compared to the previous year.

The major childcare policies and budgets for next year in Jinju City include ▲ 2.4 billion KRW for 9 projects such as support for children's snack expenses ▲ 1.3 billion KRW for 10 projects to improve the quality and treatment of childcare staff ▲ 1.3 billion KRW for 6 projects to improve the childcare environment ▲ 800 million KRW for operating the Comprehensive Childcare Support Center and Toy Bank.

Jinju City will support a snack allowance of 15,000 KRW per child per month for children in daycare centers, which is a 50% increase compared to this year. It also plans to promote events such as children's drawing contests, support camps for children with disabilities, and performances and exhibitions of children's plays.

In addition, all childcare staff will receive special encouragement allowances on Teachers' Day and summer vacation expenses, and homeroom childcare teachers who have worked for 2 to 3 years or more at the same daycare center will receive long-term service allowances.

For four aging national and public daycare centers, Jinju City will invest 1.2 billion KRW to carry out functional reinforcement projects, and it plans to focus on continuously expanding national and public daycare centers, including opening three new national and public daycare centers in March next year.

Mayor Jo Gyu-il said, "In response to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, we will promote various policies to improve the treatment of childcare staff and reduce the parenting burden on parents."

Meanwhile, as of December this year, about 3,300 people are eligible for Jinju City's home childcare allowance, and about 9,400 children aged 0 to 5 are using daycare centers. There are 241 daycare centers in the area, employing about 2,500 childcare staff.

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