"Increase the National Government's Share of COVID-19 Living Support Fund to 80%"

Joint Statement Announcement by the Association of Provincial Governors of the Republic of Korea

[Jeonju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Han-ho] The Council of Governors of Provinces and Cities of the Republic of Korea (Chairman Song Ha-jin, Governor of Jeonbuk Province) announced a joint statement on the 17th urging the government to bear 80% of the national expenses for the COVID-19 living support fund project.

In the joint statement, the Council strongly urged the government and the National Assembly to raise the national expense burden rate for the living support fund project, which compensates for income loss of hospitalized and quarantined individuals, from the current 50% to 80%.

According to the Council, due to the recent spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, with the daily highest number of new confirmed cases exceeding 400,000 and the rapid increase in hospitalized and quarantined patients, the demand for the living support fund budget is skyrocketing.

In this situation, the current equal 50% burden of national and local expenses places a huge burden on local governments with very weak financial bases.

Since February last year, the government has been implementing the living support fund project to compensate for income loss caused by hospitalization and quarantine of COVID-19 confirmed patients, with national and local governments each bearing 50% of the cost.

However, the 50% local expense burden imposes an excessive burden on metropolitan and basic local governments whose financial independence rates are below 47% and 28%, respectively, which may make it impossible to continue the living support fund project in the future.

Accordingly, governors nationwide agreed that the COVID-19 living support fund is a system to guarantee the basic quality of life of the people, and they reached consensus on bearing 80% of the national expenses, similar to the Basic Livelihood Security Program or Emergency Welfare Program, leading to the adoption of the joint statement.

Chairman Song Ha-jin emphasized, “The COVID-19 living support fund project, which has continued since last year, should not be interrupted to strengthen the stability of people's lives,” and added, “It is desirable to strengthen the central government's financial responsibility in the COVID-19 disaster situation.”

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

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