Incheon City 2025 Budget Plan Set at 14.9 Trillion Won... 97.2 Billion Won Decrease from This Year

Focused Investment on Strengthening Public Welfare and Advancing as a Global Top Ten City

Incheon City has prepared next year's main budget at approximately 1 trillion KRW less than this year, totaling 14.9 trillion KRW.

The city announced on the 31st that the 2025 budget plan was set at 14.9396 trillion KRW. This is a decrease of 97.2 billion KRW (0.6%) compared to this year's main budget of 15.0368 trillion KRW, marking the first reduction in 10 years since the 2015 main budget plan.

The city's own revenue, including local taxes and non-tax income, is expected to increase by 2.9% compared to this year, while dependent revenue such as national subsidies and local allocation tax is expected to rise by 4.2%. Due to the issuance of local bonds for key projects in the 8th elected term and an increase in statutory mandatory expenses, the city analyzed that the management debt ratio will also rise from 12.3% this year to 14.5% next year.

Incheon City Hall Exterior View

The city focused the next year's main budget expenditure on restoring the people's economy, realizing welfare for the vulnerable, minimizing citizen inconvenience, and leaping toward becoming a 'Global Top Ten City.'

By sector, 775.2 billion KRW will be invested to create a transportation environment without citizen inconvenience, supporting public transportation costs and tolls, solving parking problems, and protecting transportation-vulnerable groups.

Additionally, 2.3438 trillion KRW will be invested in policies that can enhance citizens' happiness perception such as childcare, housing, and safety. This includes the '1 Billion Plus i Dream' policy, which supports all children born in Incheon with a total of 100 million KRW until the age of 18, and the supply of 'Thousand Won Housing' with a daily rent of 1,000 KRW for newlyweds. Moving expenses and monthly rent will also be supported to stabilize youth housing life.

The culture, sports, and tourism activation sector plans to invest a total of 528.4 billion KRW in various projects such as supporting coastal passenger ship fares, constructing the Incheon Museum Park, and developing islands and border areas.

A total of 255 billion KRW will be provided to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, low-income families, and the disabled, creating 61,823 jobs, which is 1,785 more than this year. The Incheon love gift certificate 'Incheon e-eum' cashback is reflected at 105.4 billion KRW, the highest level among special and metropolitan cities.

The city allocated 1.7811 trillion KRW to leap toward becoming a global top ten city. Of this, 97.7 billion KRW will be invested in future industry activation such as the Future Space Education Center, urban air mobility demonstration support and platform construction, blockchain hub city creation, and PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) industry development.

Also, 146.6 billion KRW will be invested in the Jemulpo Renaissance project for balanced development of the old downtown, including making the open port area a landmark and creating the complex building 'Young Square' to support startups and business growth.

Furthermore, to expand the comprehensive transportation network, projects such as the extension of Line 1 to Geomdan, extension of Line 7 to Cheongna International City, construction of the Yeongjong~Sindo Peace Road, and road opening between Samik Apartments in Sinheung-dong and Dongkuk Steel will be promoted. The city will also work on building distribution water pipelines, developing water sources, and expanding sewage treatment facilities to provide clean and safe water supply.

The budget plan prepared by the city will be finalized around December after review by the city council.

Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok said, "Next year's city budget plan focuses on supporting the people's economy, enhancing citizens' happiness perception, and investing in the future," adding, "We will do our best to ensure that citizens' precious taxes are not wasted."

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