Pohang City, Proactive Measures on Living Costs ... Full Effort to Stabilize the Economy of Ordinary Citizens

Stabilizing Living and Food Prices: 'Pan-Citizen Countermeasure Meeting' Held

Rapid Implementation Through Securing Supplementary Budget for 'Five Stability Measures'

Pohang City Makes Every Effort to Stabilize the Economy of Ordinary Citizens through Active Living Cost Measures.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City, Gyeongbuk, held a ‘Citywide Citizens’ Meeting for Stabilizing Living and Food Prices’ at City Hall on the 19th.

Presided over by Son Jeong-ho, Director of the Job and Economy Bureau, this meeting was held as a prompt response by Pohang City to stabilize living prices and the livelihood economy in line with the government’s direction at the ‘5th Emergency Economic and Livelihood Meeting’ on August 11.

In-depth discussions were held on urgent response measures for consumers and small business owners suffering from the recent triple crisis of high interest rates, high prices, and high exchange rates, as well as the necessity of mutual cooperation among public and private economic actors.

The meeting shared opinions on establishing measures to stabilize living prices closely related to the daily lives of ordinary citizens, such as rising grocery prices and dining-out costs due to the rapid deterioration of domestic and international economic conditions, and listened to the difficulties faced by small business owners caused by raw material price increases, aiming to promote price stabilization measures on a citywide citizen basis.

In the supplementary budget passed last June, the entire budget related to the ‘Five-Item Set for Living and Food Prices’ discussed at the emergency price countermeasure meeting was secured, preparing resources to fully focus on price stabilization and to implement measures swiftly.

▲ To support small business owners struggling with rising raw material costs, 2.4 billion KRW will be allocated as ‘Special Guarantee for Raw Material Purchases and Other Interest Subsidies,’ compensating the interest difference at 2% for up to 50 million KRW over one year. ▲ Additionally, 1 billion KRW will be invested in the ‘Price Stabilization Employment Incentive’ to support labor costs up to 500,000 KRW per person (up to 2 persons per business) for small-scale businesses affected by raw material price increases, preventing further price hikes.

▲ With a budget of 100 million KRW, the ‘Good Price Business Program,’ which supports businesses operating below the average price per item with 1.25 million KRW, will be expanded to a maximum of 200 businesses. ▲ Through consultations with agricultural, livestock, and fisheries cooperatives, the city plans to contribute to price stabilization by securing supply volumes and timely delivery, expanding direct transactions of agricultural specialties between producers and consumers, and increasing support for feed purchase funds and forage production equipment.

▲ Pohang City will mobilize all available means, including freezing local public utility fees such as water and sewage charges, city bus and taxi fares, and garbage bag prices, to strive for the stabilization of prices affecting ordinary citizens.

▲ To revitalize the sluggish local economy, 90 billion KRW worth of Pohang Love Gift Certificates will be issued for the Chuseok holiday. ▲ Continuous improvements to parking environments will be carried out to boost traditional market vitality. ▲ Events such as excellent product fairs, operation of the Central Shopping District night market, traditional market shopping events by groups, and non-face-to-face shopping delivery services will continue.

Having been selected for the neighborhood-level local distribution channel establishment project, Pohang secured 700 million KRW in national funds, with a total project cost of 880 million KRW, to open a neighborhood-level model store as an online shopping hub. Collaborating with local producer groups both online and offline, the city provides excellent processed agricultural, livestock, and fishery products within the region, laying the foundation for a win-win relationship between small business owners and local producers.

Related organizations such as the Pohang Supermarket Cooperative also announced price stabilization measures tailored to their characteristics, including joint sales promotions, formation of a local specialty product discovery council, price reductions, and price stabilization campaigns.

Son Jeong-ho, Director of the Job and Economy Bureau, said, “In this crisis situation where additional price increase factors remain due to seasonal factors such as heatwaves and monsoons, we ask related institutions and organizations to voluntarily participate actively in the price stabilization atmosphere and refrain from raising personal service fees.” He added, “We urge everyone to concentrate all efforts on price stabilization management, including active cooperation in discount events, so that citizens can feel the decrease in essential goods prices.”

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