Naju-si Awarded 'Best Excellence Award' in Local Price Stability Management Performance Evaluation Report

Published 14 Jul.2023 14:35(KST)

Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Yoon Byung-tae) announced on the 14th that it won the Grand Prize in the 2023 First Half Local Price Stability Management Performance Evaluation hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Among 243 local governments nationwide, 24 local governments including Naju City received the Grand Prize in this evaluation.

With this award, the city secured a special grant of 150 million KRW from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Naju City, Jeollanam-do, won the Grand Prize in the 2023 First Half Local Price Stability Management Performance Evaluation hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
[Photo by Naju City]

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety evaluated and announced local governments nationwide in seven quantitative and qualitative evaluation categories including local public utility price stability management, support for good price businesses, and special policies, rating them as excellent, good, or insufficient.

The city received high scores for measures such as freezing and reducing local public utility prices amid high interest rates and inflation, as well as for the special policy of expanding the discount rate of the Naju Sarang Gift Certificate.

The city originally planned to raise local public utility fees such as water and sewage charges annually over four years starting this year, but considering the worsening livelihood conditions, postponed the increase until after 2024.

In addition, from February to June, the city implemented a policy to reduce water charges by up to 13% depending on the reduction in water usage.

The plan to raise the price of waste volume-based bags in the second half of this year was also withdrawn and postponed until next year.

The Naju Sarang Gift Certificate (local currency), which has the effect of preventing the outflow of local funds, increased its discount rate from 5-7% at the beginning of the year to a maximum of 10%.

The discount rate was raised to 10% for mobile and card payments and 7% for paper certificates, revitalizing the depressed local commercial district.

Furthermore, efforts were made to establish a sound consumption culture through monitoring and campaigns to minimize increases in personal service fees, meetings with the Naju branch of the Korea Foodservice Industry Association, and campaigns to promote the use of Jeonnam Meokkebi (public delivery app) and good price businesses.

Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said, “Despite the livelihood economic crisis, we received a good evaluation thanks to the active participation of small business owners, self-employed people, and citizens in price stability and the spread of a sound consumption culture. We will continue to do our best to implement price stabilization policies and initiatives to revitalize the local commercial district that citizens can feel.”