Gyeongnam Province Firm on Closing Youth Center... "Focus Support on Youth, Not Center Staff"

Park Wansu, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, is speaking about the closure of the Youth Center. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] Gyeongsangnam-do announced its position on December 1 regarding the press conference held by the Gyeongnam Provincial Council Youth Policy Research Group.

Former and current Democratic Party provincial council members who served as youth councilors in the 11th Provincial Council, including Kim Kyung-su, Kim Jin-ok, Park Jun-ho, Sung Dong-eun, Son Deok-sang, Shin Sang-hoon, and Jang Jong-ha, urged the withdrawal of the planned closure of the Gyeongnam Youth Center scheduled for December.

They criticized Gyeongsangnam-do, asking, “Is Governor Park Wan-su’s first youth policy to remove the youth support pillar?”

They demanded that the province “cancel the abolition of the Onna Youth Center, communicate with the youth users to obtain their consent, and then decide on whether to close it,” and requested the Provincial Council to allocate the related budget.

In response, the province stated, “It is the province’s natural duty to eliminate inefficiencies in budget execution and ensure that the precious taxpayers’ money is invested where it is truly needed,” reaffirming its intention to close the center.

They explained, “Although the Gyeongnam Youth Center was operated with taxpayers’ money, 61.8% of the budget was spent on center operation costs compared to 38.2% on youth support projects, and the utilization rate was low, with an average of only 15 visitors per day until the end of September this year.”

They also cited overlapping roles with city and county youth centers as one of the reasons for the closure decision.

The province emphasized, “Continuing to invest budget in inefficient areas within limited resources results in weakening support for the majority of youth. Taxes that should be used to support youth cannot be spent on center staff.”

“The budget that was inefficiently used has been reviewed and concentrated into the 2023 youth support budget,” they added, “We will spend 102.7 billion KRW for youth, which is a 26.5% increase from this year’s 81.2 billion KRW.”

Instead of closing the metropolitan center, the province plans to operate regional base centers, invest 54.9 billion KRW in youth employment sectors, and gather youth opinions through projects such as establishing a youth policy roadmap.

Earlier, on November 30, Governor Park Wan-su said at a press briefing, “Closing the Youth Center will not shake youth policy,” and added, “Allowing inefficient operations to continue means the governor is failing to meet the expectations of the residents.”

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