Jungnang-gu Submits 15.5 Billion KRW Supplementary Budget... 12.5 Billion KRW Allocated for COVID-19 Response and Disaster Safety Sectors

[Seoul District News] Jungnang-gu Allocates 2.3 Billion KRW for COVID-19 Prevention and Small Business Support, 10.2 Billion KRW for Disaster Safety Including Serious Accidents; Council Review from 14th, Finalized on 22nd... Gangbuk-gu Produces Eco-Friendly Fertilizer by Recycling Coffee Grounds... Dobong-gu Selected for Ministry of the Interior's Advanced IT Public Service Promotion Project... Dongjak-gu Manages Welfare Recipients Struggling with Self Home Treatment... Gwangjin-gu Operates On-Site Loss Compensation for Small Businesses Q4 2021

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Jungnang-gu (Mayor Ryu Gyeong-gi) submitted an additional supplementary budget plan totaling 15.5 billion KRW to the district council on the 4th, focusing on strengthening COVID-19 response, revitalizing the local economy, and disaster safety.

This supplementary budget represents a 1.4% increase compared to the existing budget. It is scheduled to be finalized on the 22nd after deliberation by the Jungnang-gu Council (Chair Eun Seung-hee) starting from the 14th. Through this supplementary budget, the district plans to firmly establish a COVID-19 response system and actively support local small business owners to recover the stagnant economy.

A total of 2.3 billion KRW has been allocated for strengthening COVID-19 quarantine measures and supporting small business owners, and 1.9 billion KRW for managing home treatment and operating screening clinics. Additionally, 400 million KRW has been budgeted for projects supporting small business owners together with residents, such as the Jungnang Love Gift Certificate refund event to revitalize the sluggish economy.

For residents' safety, the disaster safety sector was also carefully addressed. An additional 200 million KRW was allocated for safety inspections of public facilities following the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, 2 billion KRW for the disaster management fund, and 8 billion KRW for a contingency reserve fund to cover urgent livelihood support such as local government contributions for supplementary budgets from the government and Seoul city.

Furthermore, 1.7 billion KRW was allocated for urban development and local environmental improvement, including small-scale housing maintenance projects and aging road repairs, and 1.3 billion KRW for resident welfare sectors such as operating public indoor playgrounds and veterans' honor allowances.

Ryu Gyeong-gi, Mayor of Jungnang-gu, said, “We have focused the budget intensively on relevant sectors to actively respond to COVID-19 and quickly recover the economy,” adding, “We will strive to implement projects that residents can feel through efficient financial execution.”

Gangbuk-gu (Mayor Park Gyeom-su) is promoting a ‘Coffee Grounds Recycling Project’ that recycles coffee grounds from coffee shops into eco-friendly compost.

'Coffee grounds' refer to the byproduct left after making coffee, commonly called 'coffee dregs.' About 15g of coffee beans are used to make one cup of Americano, and approximately 99% of the beans become coffee grounds and are discarded. Coffee grounds have a high calorific value and can be recycled as biofuel or compost, but currently, they are classified as household waste under the Waste Management Act and are disposed of accordingly.

Accordingly, the district announced that it will promote the ‘Coffee Grounds Recycling Project’ targeting 284 coffee shops in the area to reduce the amount of household waste generated by coffee grounds and cut disposal costs.

First, the district designated three gas stations located in Mia-dong, Suyu-dong, and Beon-dong as collection points for coffee grounds by region.

Coffee shops participating in the coffee grounds recycling project are to place coffee grounds in bags without foreign substances and dispose of them at the designated gas station collection points. The district will then recycle the collected coffee grounds into eco-friendly compost through recycling companies.

Coffee shops wishing to participate in the coffee grounds recycling project can apply to the Gangbuk-gu Cleaning Administration Division.

Gangbuk-gu announced that it will sign a 'Coffee Grounds Recycling Project MOU' with local coffee shops and recycling companies in April and plans to start the recycling project from May 1.

Park Gyeom-su, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, “The coffee grounds recycling project is an effort to reduce household waste emissions and residents' tax burdens and to create an eco-friendly city, Gangbuk-gu,” adding, “In addition to the coffee grounds recycling project, we will discover various recyclable resources and strive to transform Gangbuk-gu into a resource-circulating city.”

Dobong-gu (Mayor Lee Dong-jin) was finally selected in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s ‘2022 Advanced Information Technology Utilization Public Service Promotion Project’ competition.

This competition was held from January to February targeting public institutions to solve social issues and regional problems using advanced information technology. Applicants chose one of nine pilot projects promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and five final project-performing institutions were selected. Each selected institution receives project funding of approximately 600 million KRW per project.

In this competition, Dobong-gu achieved the great success of being selected as the performing institution for the ‘Big Data-Based Response System for Fine Dust on Roads Around Bus Stops’ (photo), which was a common concern among most administrative agencies.

The selected project involves installing smart devices that monitor data such as fine dust around bus stops and building a system that utilizes the collected information for administration. Dobong-gu added a unique project item and was awarded a total of 600 million KRW, including matching funds.

As a result of this selection, the district will select about 80 bus stops in the area and install IoT (Internet of Things)-based devices to collect not only the usual 10 environmental data points but also about 20 data points including carbon and carbon monoxide.

In particular, Dobong-gu plans to integrate and develop this project with its own platform project to build a ‘Cloud-Based Urban Data Aggregation Platform.’ This platform, once established, can be commonly used by local governments nationwide, attracting attention.

The ‘Cloud-Based Urban Data Aggregation Platform’ is designed based on the cloud to collect data generated from any institution’s equipment, allowing administrative agencies using it to aggregate data without the need to introduce separate server equipment.

Dobong-gu is one of the leading local governments in urban data and platform construction. In 2020, it established a storage platform capable of aggregating urban data generated from various smart devices in the region by building a CCTV information-sharing integrated platform for smart cities under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Lee Dong-jin, Mayor of Dobong-gu, said, “Dobong-gu is a distinguished local government excelling in carbon neutrality both domestically and internationally, having enacted and promulgated the ‘Dobong-gu Carbon Neutrality Basic Ordinance’ first in the nation and being the only domestic entity to receive the highest grade (A) in the ‘International Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2021’ evaluation conducted on 965 cities worldwide. We will fully utilize the big data and AI analysis results derived from this project to establish a smart scientific administration model such as the deployment of water spraying cleaning vehicles and promote nationwide standardization activities through the dissemination of the Dobong-type cloud platform.”

Dongjak-gu (Mayor Lee Chang-woo) announced on the 8th that it has prepared a plan to separately manage welfare recipients among the general home treatment management group who are vulnerable to information and insufficient in responding to emergencies.

As of 6 p.m. on March 6, among Dongjak-gu’s home treatment subjects, 2,053 people (18.8%) are in the intensive management group, and 8,853 people (81.2%) are classified as the general management group, with the majority in the latter.

Since the COVID-19 home treatment system was reorganized, the blind spots in treatment for the general management group, who manage themselves without regular monitoring and receive non-face-to-face treatment or consultation at local clinics when necessary, have gradually become apparent.

Accordingly, the district conducts daily phone check-ins at least once for 144 welfare recipients (basic livelihood security recipients, lower-income groups, single-parent families), about 1.7% of the general management group, to quickly provide treatment if abnormal reactions are detected, and also provides information on available welfare services.

If calls fail more than twice a day, the district plans to coordinate with the welfare planner at the local community service center to visit the home directly and check for any abnormalities.

Additionally, about 200,000 rapid antigen test kits will be sequentially provided free of charge by the end of March to vulnerable groups easily exposed to infection risks (daycare infants, teachers, pregnant women, and other vulnerable groups) to alleviate purchase burdens and support voluntary preemptive testing.

Since February 24, the district has mobilized all employees to provide telephone guidance services matched 1:1 with the general management group, including information on medical institutions operating on holidays, contact information and usage methods of local pharmacies, and quarantine compliance rules, to ensure safe home treatment without exclusion or isolation from the medical system.

Lee Chang-woo, Mayor of Dongjak-gu, said, “We will do our best to prevent blind spots in home treatment under the reorganized Omicron-tailored quarantine and medical system,” adding, “We will prioritize residents’ safety from COVID-19 and devote all efforts to preventing and controlling infectious diseases in the region.”

Gwangjin-gu (Mayor Kim Seon-gap) will operate an ‘On-site Application Center for Small Business Loss Compensation’ from the 10th to facilitate loss compensation applications for small business owners.

Small business loss compensation is a system that compensates small business owners who have faithfully complied with government quarantine measures such as gathering bans related to COVID-19, calculating and paying compensation proportionally based on the scale of losses per business.

The criteria for selecting compensation amounts include the average daily loss per month, the number of days quarantine measures were implemented per month, and adjustment rates. The upper limit for the 4th quarter loss compensation is 100 million KRW, and the lower limit is 500,000 KRW.

The support targets are small business owners and small enterprises that suffered serious business losses due to government gathering bans, operating hour restrictions, and facility capacity limits from October 1 to December 31. Applications can be easily submitted online via the Small Business Loss Compensation website.

In this regard, the district formed a dedicated on-site application task force for small business owners who have difficulty using online services and will operate the on-site application center at the Gwangjin Family Shelter in the basement of the Safety Management Building at the district office starting March 10.

Small business owners or small enterprise representatives wishing to apply on-site can visit the district office application center with a copy of their business registration certificate or business registration confirmation and identification card.

In relation to this, the district paid about 19.8 billion KRW to 5,155 businesses as small business loss compensation for the 3rd quarter of 2021.

For more details, inquiries can be made to the Small Business Loss Compensation Call Center (☎1533-3300) or the Gwangjin-gu Office on-site application center.

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “I hope this loss compensation will be a practical help to small business owners who have faithfully complied with quarantine measures,” adding, “We will continue to discover and promote various policies to revitalize the stagnant local economy.”

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