Pohang City, Citizen-Centered Policies ... Full Effort to Revive the Livelihood Economy

Decision to Freeze Water Supply, Bus, Garbage Bag, and Sewerage Fees This Year

Stable Price Management and Citizen-Oriented Policies to Induce Positive Regional Economic Cycle

Expectations for Domestic Demand Recovery with Large-Scale Consum

Pohang City will actively promote citizen-centered policies to alleviate the burden on citizens facing economic difficulties due to the triple hardships of high inflation, high interest rates, and high exchange rates, and to revitalize the stagnant livelihood economy.

The Pan-Citizen Countermeasure Meeting for Livelihood Economy and Price Stabilization held last February.

To stabilize public utility charges directly related to daily life, the city decided to freeze this year's rates for water supply fees, bus fares, and garbage bag fees, and also postponed the scheduled increase in sewerage fees planned for July, deciding to freeze the fees for this year.

In addition, to ease the increasing burden of public utility charges, the city will invest 1.9 billion KRW in budget to provide water supply fee reductions for vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security recipients, exemplary food hygiene establishments, and small and medium-sized enterprises including good-price businesses.

Along with this, to ensure stable management of personal service fees that citizens feel strongly about, the city plans to significantly expand the number of good-price businesses from the current 151 locations to a target of 200 locations this year by continuously discovering new ones. It will actively encourage voluntary price reductions through enhanced incentive support and focused promotional efforts to revitalize good-price businesses.

Furthermore, regular meetings with suppliers such as merchant associations and large-scale stores will be held to encourage suppliers' participation in price stabilization through public-private cooperation. Consumer campaigns promoting rational consumption and the use of good-price businesses will be conducted to foster a price stabilization atmosphere involving all citizens.

Issuance of the Pohang Love Gift Certificates, which serve as a pillar for regional economic development by preventing the outflow of local funds and recovering sluggish consumer sentiment, will be used to increase sales for small business owners and revitalize local shopping districts.

This year, the city aims for a total issuance scale of 325.2 billion KRW, selling 20 billion KRW monthly at a 7% constant discount, and conducting special 10% discount sales events during holidays and festival periods to enhance economic synergy effects by leveraging consumption peak seasons.

To stimulate domestic demand, the city plans to promote the influx of tourists and expand local consumption through large-scale promotional events in cooperation with the central government.

In connection with Pohang’s representative local festival, the Pohang International Fireworks Festival (May 26?28), the city will jointly hold the large-scale consumption promotion event “2023 Korea Together Festival” with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, selling not only local specialties but also excellent products from small and medium enterprises and daily necessities.

Additionally, offline special sales such as Pohang excellent product exhibitions and flea markets will be held, along with online live commerce events on platforms like Naver and Coupang, providing not only reasonably priced goods but also diverse attractions to recover weakened consumer sentiment and invigorate the consumption economy, expected to serve as a catalyst for regional economic growth.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok stated, “We will actively implement citizen-centered policies by listening to the diverse voices of citizens to ensure stable local price management and the swift recovery of the livelihood economy,” and added, “We will strive to restore weakened consumer sentiment so that the local economy can enter a virtuous cycle.”

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