South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City secures 13.9 trillion won in next year's national budget
South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City Mayor Min Hyung-bae said Wednesday that the city's newly secured national budget allocation marks "the first national budget secured after dispelling concerns about the disadvantages of integration."
Speaking at a budget briefing at the Gwangju city hall, Min said the result "can be seen as a national budget secured without disadvantage — putting to rest worries about whether the integrated special city's first national budget could be maintained, or what would happen if it were reduced."
The South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City secured 13.9 trillion won ($10.1 billion) in the government's draft budget for next year, a 6.3 percent increase from this year. An additional 1.5 trillion won in a semiconductor special account was also included as a fiscal incentive for the integration.
Min said the former South Jeolla Province and Gwangju had long competed against each other for major national projects such as the National AI Computing Center. "Now that we are integrated, instead of competing we are expanding future industries through the synergy of integration," he said.
He added that the city would "connect the power of integration to national investment, create businesses and jobs, and make sure those results are returned as real changes in citizens' daily lives." Min also said the city would work to protect the budget figures already included in the draft during the National Assembly review process and push for additional funding for key projects not yet reflected.
sij@heraldcorp.com
