Incheon lobbies National Assembly to secure W210.7b in federal funds for 2027

Incheon Metropolitan City has launched an intensive lobbying campaign at the National Assembly to secure 210.7 billion won ($150 million) in federal funding for 12 key local projects in the 2027 government budget.

With the government's budget bill submission to the Assembly approaching, city officials are meeting directly with local lawmakers to make the case for each project. Nam Young-hee, Incheon's vice mayor for global city affairs, visited the National Assembly on Thursday to ask the chairman of the Budget and Accounts Committee and local lawmakers to back the city's priority funding requests.

Nam called on Budget and Accounts Committee Chairman Lee Gwang-jae first, then made the rounds of offices belonging to Incheon-area lawmakers Maeng Seong-gyu, Jeong Il-yeong, No Jong-myeon, Lee Hun-gi and Mo Gyeong-jong, explaining why all 12 projects should be included in the government budget.

The largest single item among the city's requests is 101.4 billion won to raise the national subsidy rate for local gift-card programs. Next in scale is 62.6 billion won to support the transition and settlement costs tied to Incheon's administrative restructuring.

In transportation and urban development, the requests include 4.8 billion won to bring metropolitan bus services under a quasi-public operating system overseen by the Metropolitan Transport Commission, and 2 billion won for the redevelopment of Piers 1 and 8 at Incheon Port's inner harbor.

Future-industry projects account for a significant share of the requests. The city is seeking 10 billion won to build a quantum-biotech cluster, 4 billion won to support automotive cybersecurity certification testing for global regulatory compliance, 3 billion won for a connected-car support project aimed at addressing export regulations, and 6 billion won for an AI-based pilot program to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.

Additional requests include 7.4 billion won to expand the public wastewater treatment facility at I-Food Park, 7.2 billion won to improve areas designated as natural-disaster risk zones, 500 million won to establish the Incheon Marine and Fisheries Industry Promotion Agency, and 1.8 billion won to upgrade the scoreboard at Incheon's dedicated football stadium.

The 210.7 billion won the city is seeking spans a wide range of priorities — from livelihood projects with a direct impact on residents' daily lives to administrative restructuring, transportation, port development, and future-growth industries including biotech, next-generation vehicles and AI.

"Securing national funding is essential for the sustainable future growth of the ninth elected administration," Nam said. "We will actively engage throughout the National Assembly's standing committee and budget committee review process until the final budget is confirmed, and do our utmost to ensure that projects residents can feel in their daily lives proceed without a hitch."

Meanwhile, the government is scheduled to submit the 2027 budget bill to the National Assembly by Sept. 3.