Gwangju City to Invest 281.8 Billion Won Next Year to Address Low Birth Rate

Strengthening Universal Welfare with 500,000 Won Birth Congratulatory Sangsaeng Card
Expanding Support for SME Workers and Small Business Owners in Policy Blind Spots
Healthy Pregnancy and Childbirth... Three Special Parental Leaves for Childcare Officials

Gwangju City will invest 281.8 billion KRW next year to strengthen birth support policies so that medical, care, and work-life care can lead to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare. The photo is an image introducing Gwangju City's low birthrate response policy. Provided by Gwangju City. Photo by Gwangju City

Gwangju City will invest 281.8 billion KRW next year to expand and strengthen birth support policies, ensuring that medical care, caregiving, and work-life care are seamlessly connected to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare.

To achieve this, the city will enhance universal welfare in the field of home-based care to supplement the limitations of public facility-based care, and will significantly increase support for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners, implementing 47 projects tailored to different life stages.

The city will also implement a “Three Special Parental Leave Package” for public officials to help them balance childcare and work, and will work to build consensus so that these birth support measures can be expanded to private companies. The “Three Special Parental Leave Package” includes: ▲ two days of pregnancy checkup leave for male public officials whose spouses are pregnant, ▲ five days per year of childcare leave for public officials with children under the age of eight, ▲ and one hour per day of childcare time within a 24-month period for public officials with elementary school children aged nine or older. The city prepared this special leave package after meetings with pregnant and parenting public officials last July, announced a revision to the “Gwangju Metropolitan City Public Officials Service Ordinance” in October, and finalized the implementation plan after approval by the city council in November.

Mayor Kang Gijung stated, “Experts analyze that the period until 2032, when the national population of women of childbearing age is maintained at 1.5 million, is the golden time for policy intervention to reverse the low birthrate trend,” and added, “We will continue to implement various policies with a high level of parental satisfaction at each life stage, including pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, caregiving, and work-life balance. In particular, we will do our utmost to overcome the low birthrate crisis by developing measures necessary to establish a social care system.”

The city will also further strengthen the core areas of the “Gwangju Ai-Kium Four Major Care” ? medical care, caregiving, and work-life care ? to make Gwangju a city where it is easy to have and raise children and where parents feel comfortable.

To strengthen home-based care, starting in 2025, families who register the birth of their child in Gwangju will receive a “Birth Family Congratulations Coexistence Card” worth 500,000 KRW per child. The “Household Support Service for Pregnant Women” will double its budget from 200 million KRW to 400 million KRW, and the number of beneficiaries will increase from 1,000 to 2,000.

Support for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners, who have been in the blind spot of low birthrate policies, will also be greatly expanded. The “Parental Leave Work Replacement Allowance,” first implemented nationwide by the city in 2019, will be adopted as a national policy by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and allowances will be paid from next year. In addition, the city will inject its own funds to introduce an “Incentive for Substitute Workers,” providing up to 2 million KRW (1 million KRW for three months and another 1 million KRW for six months) to substitute workers in local SMEs.

The “10 AM Start Incentive for Elementary School Parents,” first implemented nationwide in 2022, will expand its beneficiaries from 300 to 500. The “Childcare Service Support for Small Business Owners” will provide up to 3.6 million KRW (600,000 KRW per month for six months) to small business owners with children aged three months to twelve years who use public or private childcare services. The “Support for Substitute Labor Costs for Pregnant and Postpartum Female Sole Proprietors,” also a nationwide first, will provide up to 3 million KRW (1 million KRW per month for three months) when substitute workers are hired within six months of pregnancy or childbirth.

The city will also implement the “Infant and Toddler Development Consulting” project, conducting professional assessments for 3,000 three-year-old children attending daycare centers, to detect infants and toddlers at risk of disabilities early and provide appropriate treatment referrals.

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