Saemangeum Budget Increased by 300 Billion Won... 55 Billion Won Support for Future Industries like Semiconductors and Bio

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration's budget for next year has been finalized at 656.6 trillion won, with increased allocations for social overhead capital (SOC) projects such as Saemangeum to revitalize the regional economy.

On the 21st, the National Assembly held a plenary session and approved and finalized the '2024 Budget and Fund Operation Plan.'

The budget related to Saemangeum, which had been reduced due to this year's Jamboree incident, was ultimately increased by 300 billion won. This is to focus on projects that meet corporate demands such as highways and new ports to support smooth business operations of resident companies and attract private investment.

Specifically, 113.3 billion won will be allocated for highways, 119 billion won for new ports, 26.1 billion won for new airports, and 11.6 billion won for inter-regional connecting roads. Additionally, 18.7 billion won will be invested in a critical minerals stockpile base, 6.2 billion won to support resident companies and investment attraction, and 10 billion won for arboretums.

On the 7th, Jeonbuk provincial council members and participants shouted slogans at the Jeonbuk People's Rally for the Normalization of Saemangeum Budget held in front of the National Assembly main building. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

SOC and industrial infrastructure will also be expanded. To strengthen inter-regional transportation networks, a budget of 100 billion won will be allocated for the design and groundbreaking costs of new routes such as national highways, national local roads, and railways, as well as for ongoing construction costs to ensure early completion. Projects include the Seo Cheongju?Jeungpyeong highway construction, Seoul Subway Line 9 Phase 4 extension, and Mungyeong?Gimcheon railway.

549 billion won will be provided to foster future industries. This will be invested in technology development and facility construction in fields such as semiconductors, bio, and batteries.

Budgets will be allocated for the system semiconductor verification support center (3 billion won), future car semiconductor reliability verification center (4.3 billion won), as well as for microbiome pharmaceutical manufacturing innovation (1.1 billion won) and digital biochip commercialization (5.6 billion won).

35 billion won has been set for a verification center to ensure fire safety of EV batteries, and 2.5 billion won for a real-time advanced analysis center for secondary batteries. An additional 10 billion won will be provided to supply more than 40% of newly supplied smart factories as advanced factories.

The government plans to submit and approve the 'Consent to the National Assembly's Increase of the 2024 Budget and Budget Announcement Plan' and the '2024 Budget Allocation Plan' at the Cabinet meeting on the 26th.

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