[2024 Budget] "Full-scale Response to Safety and Low Birthrate" Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 60.6 Trillion Won Increased by 4.9 Trillion Won

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Budget Proposal of 60.6471 Trillion Won
Expenditure Restructuring... Investment in 5 Key Focus Areas

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) will expand investments in the safety sector next year to respond to various industrial and natural disasters. Additionally, linking housing stability with low birth rates, it will establish special and priority supply for newborns in childbirth households and significantly strengthen low-interest special loans.

On the 29th, MOLIT announced that it has allocated resources by setting five key investment areas, including responses to new types of disasters and creating a housing environment conducive to childbirth, and prepared a 2024 budget of 60.6471 trillion KRW. This is an increase of 4.8956 trillion KRW (8.8%) compared to this year's main budget of 55.7514 trillion KRW, accounting for about 9.2% of the government's total expenditure (660 trillion KRW).

On the morning of July 18, at the search and rescue site of Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, which was flooded due to the collapse of the Miho River embankment, fire and police officials are conducting internal cleanup and searching for belongings. / Photo by Yonhap News

By sector, 20.4418 trillion KRW was allocated to social overhead capital (SOC), 2.865 trillion KRW to social welfare, and 37.3403 trillion KRW to funds. Among these, SOC allocated the most to railroads with 8.0478 trillion KRW, followed by roads (7.8705 trillion KRW), logistics and others (1.8666 trillion KRW), and regional and urban development (1.5164 trillion KRW). The growth rates varied significantly; the aviation and transportation budget increased by 145.3% to 842.5 billion KRW compared to this year, while research and development (R&D) was cut by 23.5% to 426 billion KRW. The industrial complex budget also decreased by 11.3% to 298 billion KRW.

In the social welfare sector, housing benefits increased by 6.6% to 2.7424 trillion KRW. The Housing and Urban Fund, used for housing loans such as Buttimgok and Didimdol, as well as public rental and sale housing construction, was increased by 3.9918 trillion KRW (12.0%) to 37.2813 trillion KRW compared to this year.

An MOLIT official explained, "Based on a sound fiscal policy, we have implemented rigorous expenditure restructuring, including the significant abolition of low-performing projects. The saved resources were invested in the government's priority tasks."

Among the five key tasks, 5.6 trillion KRW was first allocated to safety investments. Measures include addressing flooding in underground passages due to climate change, concentrated upgrades of train tracks and power facilities, and newly supporting 57.8 billion KRW for replacing noise barriers on private roads with non-combustible materials. Inspections and consulting to prevent construction site accidents will be promoted with a budget of 1.17 trillion KRW. To prevent unpredictable crimes such as random stabbings, 1,120 AI CCTV cameras will be installed in railway stations with a budget of 10 billion KRW.

For national housing stability, 36.7 trillion KRW will be invested, an increase of 4.2 trillion KRW from this year. Regardless of marital status, childbirth households will be supported with housing purchase loan interest rates of 1.6?3.3% per annum and jeonse (long-term deposit lease) loan interest rates of 1.1?3.0% per annum (with an additional 0.2 percentage point preferential rate per child). The plan includes special supply of 70,000 households annually: 30,000 each for public sale and rental housing, and 10,000 for private sale housing. To achieve the government's goal of supplying 1 million public housing units over five years, 205,000 units will be supplied next year. The related budget is set at 19.9 trillion KRW.

About 3.9 trillion KRW has been allocated under the name of protecting the vulnerable for projects such as the 'K-Pass' initiative to be launched in the second half of next year, support for victims of jeonse fraud loans, and public rental housing purchase projects. K-Pass is expected to be a modified version of the existing Altteul Transportation Card, and MOLIT explained that it can save 20?53% depending on the number of public transportation uses. Housing benefits will expand the beneficiary target (median income from 47% to 48%) and increase the benefit level by up to 27,000 KRW per month. Accordingly, the budget increased by 170.2 billion KRW compared to this year.

Additionally, MOLIT allocated 1.2 trillion KRW for future innovations such as urban air mobility (UAM) and autonomous vehicle commercialization, and 25 billion KRW and 15 billion KRW respectively for overseas construction order support and the Land and Transport Innovation Fund. Investments in transportation infrastructure construction amount to 11 trillion KRW, including the commencement of construction for Gadeokdo New Airport (536.3 billion KRW) and support for the timely opening of the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Express Railroad (GTX) (724.7 billion KRW).

Minister Won Hee-ryong of MOLIT stated, "Next year, we plan to concentrate available resources to improve citizens' living conditions and boost economic vitality. In particular, we will establish a system that ensures public safety in SOC and overcome structural risks such as low birth rates through beneficiary-centered policies."

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