Daegu City Prioritizes 1% Purchase of Products Made by Severely Disabled... Councilor Kim Jaeyong of Daegu Proposes Ordinance as Lead Sponsor

Expansion of Procurement Targets for Funded and Contributed Institutions

Daegu City Council member Kim Jae-yong (People Power Party, Buk-gu 3) announced on the 6th that he will take the lead in proposing the “Partial Amendment to the Ordinance on the Promotion of Priority Purchase of Products Produced by Severely Disabled Persons in Daegu Metropolitan City” to expand support for the production, distribution, and sales of products made by severely disabled persons.

According to Article 7 of the current “Special Act on Priority Purchase of Products Produced by Severely Disabled Persons” and Article 10 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act, public institutions are required to purchase at least 1% of their total annual purchases from products produced by severely disabled persons. However, even after 16 years since the law was enacted, many local governments have failed to meet this standard, rendering the priority purchase system for promoting employment of severely disabled persons ineffective.

Daegu City Council Member Kim Jaeyong

In Daegu as well, the priority purchase performance of products produced by severely disabled persons has shown a decreasing trend each year, with 1.09% in 2021, 0.69% in 2022, and 0.67% in 2023.

In particular, the current Daegu ordinance only stipulates that efforts should be made to reach 2% or more without a mandatory purchase regulation of at least 1%, leading to criticism that the enforcement of the priority purchase system is insufficient. Accordingly, recognizing the urgent need for measures such as compliance with the legal standard, this amendment ordinance has been proposed.

The main contents of the ordinance include expanding the target institutions to Daegu Medical Center and affiliated organizations, specifying a purchase target ratio of at least 1% in accordance with the legal ratio, expanding production, distribution, and sales support projects, adding institutions to request purchase cooperation, and establishing matters related to evaluation.

Daegu City Council member Kim Jae-yong said, “Priority purchase of products produced by severely disabled persons is an important system that provides jobs to severely disabled persons who are in employment blind spots and helps them become independent,” adding, “It is necessary to actively prepare measures to ensure that the legal standards are met responsibly so that the system can produce practical effects.”

Kim also stated, “I will further devote myself to legislative activities to monitor whether public institutions properly implement related systems and to guarantee various rights and opportunities for independence for disabled persons.”

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