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[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The Seoul Metropolitan Council has approved the 2022 Seoul city budget.

The 2022 Seoul city budget, which had been in conflict until the last day of the year, was finally approved around 9:18 PM on the 31st after much difficulty.

This came after the Seoul Metropolitan Council completely cut Mayor Oh Se-hoon's basic income budget, while Mayor Oh also prevented the cut of the Seoul Transportation Broadcasting (TBS) budget through a last-minute negotiation with Council Chairman Kim In-ho, resulting in a final agreement.

The council approved a 32 billion KRW contribution to the transportation broadcasting for next year, restoring 6.8 billion KRW out of the 12.3 billion KRW that Seoul city had initially cut.

Until the day before, the Seoul Metropolitan Council had a strong faction advocating to fully preserve Mayor Oh Se-hoon's budget and the transportation broadcasting budget.

However, with about 70 days left until the presidential election, if no compromise had been reached by the end of the year, both the Seoul citizens and Mayor Oh, as well as the council dominated by the Democratic Party, would have faced intense criticism.

Accordingly, it is reported that Mayor Oh met with Chairman Kim In-ho at a restaurant in Seoul in the afternoon to negotiate a settlement.

A member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council expressed regret, saying, "The passage of next year's Seoul city budget was inevitable through compromise, even though we could not secure the council members' budgets."

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