Opposition Party Defends Fully Cut 'Jiyeokhwaepye' Budget... Public Poll Shows 73% Say 'Government Support Needed'

National Assembly Small Business Policy Forum Announces 'Local Currency Awareness Survey'
Supports Regional Economic Revitalization... 89% General Respondents, 89.2% Self-Employed Agree
Meeting with Representative Lee Jae-myung on the 17th to Secure Budget for Local Currency

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The Democratic Party of Korea has launched efforts to restore the entire KRW 705 billion budget cut from the 'Local Love Gift Certificates (Local Currency)' budget in next year's budget proposal. The local currency policy has been promoted by party leader Lee Jae-myung since his time as governor of Gyeonggi Province and was a key pledge during his presidential campaign, making it a 'trademark' of Lee. However, the government has decided to completely cut this from the 2023 government support budget, setting the stage for a tense tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties. The Democratic Party is going all out, including conducting its own public opinion survey, to secure the local currency budget.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 16th, Democratic Party lawmakers Seo Young-kyo and Lee Dong-joo, members of the National Assembly's Small Business Policy Forum, held a press briefing at the National Assembly Members' Office Building and announced the results of a 'Perception Survey on Local Currency' conducted among 500 general citizens, 500 self-employed individuals, and 500 small business owners (conducted from the 4th to the 7th by Embrain Public, with a sampling error of ±4.38 percentage points at a 95% confidence level). According to the results, 73.2% of respondents said that "government support is necessary" for the local currency issuance budget.

Regarding the scale of support, 49.8% responded that "government support should be expanded," while 28.6% said "support should be maintained at the current level."

Additionally, 84.2% of survey respondents reported having experience using local currency. In the policy satisfaction survey, a significant portion of those with usage experience showed high satisfaction with the purchase method (80.5%), merchant usage (71.5%), benefits when using (80.3%), and the overall local currency policy (76.5%).

The most common reason for not using Local Love Gift Certificates was "merchant (usage location) restrictions" (39.8%).

Among respondents, 87.4% said they are willing to use Local Love Gift Certificates if given the opportunity in the future.

Furthermore, nearly 9 out of 10 people (89%) responded that they believe Local Love Gift Certificates help revitalize the local economy. Along with this, 75% of respondents said they have used alleyway markets and traditional markets they usually do not frequent in order to use local currency.

Notably, satisfaction was high among self-employed and small business owners in the survey, with 83.4% responding that "local currency helps revitalize the local economy." Responses indicating that it helped increase sales for the self-employed reached 73.4%, and 68.6% said it helped recover or maintain sales during the COVID-19 situation.

Regarding the expansion of Local Love Gift Certificate issuance by local governments, 89.2% of self-employed and small business respondents agreed, and 73% said "government support for issuance budgets is necessary."

Regarding the scale of support budgets, 84.4% responded that "government support should be expanded" or "support should be maintained at the current level."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the announcement of the survey results, Supreme Council member Seo Young-kyo said, "This survey reconfirmed the effectiveness of local currency," adding, "We will do our best to secure sufficient budget to revive a policy that both consumers and self-employed people are satisfied with and need."

Lawmaker Lee Dong-joo emphasized, "Small business owners continue to suffer from high interest rates and high prices while the accumulated damage from COVID-19 has not yet been recovered," and said, "The government should review these survey results and restore the budget that is essential for the people and small business owners."

The Democratic Party, which proposed an increase of KRW 705 billion against the government's local currency budget cut, plans to hold a 'Small Business Meeting for Securing Local Currency Budget' on the 17th, attended by party leader Lee.

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