Additional Designation of Gapyeong-gun Border Area "Accelerating the Gyeonggi Northern Great Reform Project"

Cabinet Approves Amendment to Special Act on Support for Border Areas on the 4th
Expanded Administrative and Financial Support Expected, Including National Subsidies and Tax Reductions
Kim Dong-yeon: "We Will Steadily Promote the Great Transformation of Northern Gyeonggi-do"

Gapyeong-gun in Gyeonggi-do has been additionally designated as a border area, which is expected to greatly aid various regional developments by increasing administrative and financial support from the government.

Border area. Provided by Gyeonggi Province

According to Gyeonggi-do on the 4th, the amendment to the "Special Act on Support for Border Areas Enforcement Decree," which includes the additional designation of Gapyeong-gun as a border area, passed the Cabinet meeting review on the same day. Accordingly, Gapyeong-gun and Sokcho-si were added to the existing 15 border areas.

The Special Act on Support for Border Areas regulates necessary matters for the sustainable development of underdeveloped border areas. Currently, the designated border areas include a total of 15 places: 10 cities and counties designated under the Special Act on Support for Border Areas that border the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Northern Limit Line, and 5 cities designated by presidential decree. Among these, 7 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do are designated as border areas. Gapyeong-gun is the eighth.

When designated as a border area, national and provincial financial support is provided, and it is applied as a second home special zone, exempting additional taxes such as comprehensive real estate tax, capital gains tax, property tax, and acquisition tax related to owning two houses per household. This reduces the burden of purchasing additional homes, which is expected to activate real estate transactions and increase the resident population.

The tax benefits for second homes apply when an existing single-home owner acquires one additional house with a publicly announced price of 400 million KRW or less in the population-decreasing area of Gapyeong-gun. This is treated as a single household single home special case, providing incentives such as exemption from the two-home owner tax surcharge and benefits related to home ownership and transactions.

Following the designation as a border area, Gapyeong-gun plans to promote a service for establishing a comprehensive development plan and discover various projects such as tourism businesses tailored to the regional characteristics to increase visitor numbers.

If newly reflected in national subsidy projects such as special situation development projects for border areas, the national subsidy rate will increase (from 70% to 80%), and the existing budget support of 3 billion KRW per year will expand to about 6 billion KRW. This is expected to increase regional income through basic living infrastructure such as roads and water supply/sewerage, as well as lodging, tourism, and experiential businesses.

After receiving a proposal from Gapyeong-gun in March 2023, Gyeonggi-do requested the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in June of the same year regarding the proposal. Gyeonggi-do and Gapyeong-gun conducted a research service on the necessity and objective justification for designating Gapyeong-gun as a border area through the Gyeonggi Research Institute and submitted it to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in December 2023. In April last year, the Vice Governor of Economy of Gyeonggi-do also supported consultations with the Budget Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in a meeting with the Gapyeong-gun governor.

Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi-do, said, “With the designation of Gapyeong-gun as a border area this time, we have awakened the growth potential of Gapyeong, which had been constrained by overlapping regulations in the metropolitan area, and laid the foundation for a new leap forward. We will steadily promote the great transformation of northern Gyeonggi-do, which will become a new growth engine for the Republic of Korea.”

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