Gwangju City, Final Push to Secure National Budget for Next Year

Kim Gwangjin Deputy Mayor and Song Eonseok, People Power Party Budget Committee Secretary, Visit

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Ki-jung) has launched a final all-out effort to secure national funding for next year.

On the 4th, Kim Kwang-jin, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Economy of Gwangju City, met with Song Eon-seok, the Budget and Accounts Committee Whip of the People Power Party, and other budget-related members of the National Assembly at the National Assembly to explain the necessity of the ‘2024 Major National Fund Projects of Gwangju City’ and requested additional reflection in next year’s budget.

Deputy Mayor Kim met with Whip Song and proposed that the following be reflected during the National Assembly’s review stage: ▲‘Additional construction costs and remaining project costs for the creation of an AI-centered industrial convergence complex’ (15.1 billion KRW) to complete the first phase of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) project ▲‘Project costs for establishing a hyper-large AI customized data preprocessing demonstration environment’ (14 billion KRW) utilizing the national AI data center ▲‘Design costs for the Children’s Art and Science Center’ (1.5 billion KRW) to build a children’s center, which is the only metropolitan city without one among special and metropolitan cities.

Gwangju City plans to continue its wide-ranging efforts to secure additional national funding for next year until the budget bill is finally approved by the National Assembly.

On the 29th of last month, Bae Il-kwon, Director of Planning and Coordination, visited the Speaker’s Office, Deputy Speaker’s Office, and Budget Committee Chairman’s Office at the National Assembly and met with local budget committee members to emphasize the necessity of securing national funds.

Also, on the following day, the 30th of last month, Moon Young-hoon, Deputy Mayor for Administration, visited the Budget Committee Chairman’s Office to explain the major national fund-supported projects for 2024 and requested an increase in the budget.

Since the end of October, Gwangju City has been organizing and operating a ‘National Fund Securing Situation Room,’ actively visiting the Budget Committee Chairman’s Office, Budget Committee Whip’s Office, and local National Assembly members’ offices daily to explain major national fund projects and emphasize the need for budget increases.

Kim Kwang-jin, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Economy, said, “Without worrying about the total amount of national funding secured, we will do our best until the end to bring future growth engine project budgets that solve current issues and revitalize the local economy to Gwangju.”

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