Gyeonggi Province to Conduct First Domestic Basic Income Demonstration Project in Rural Areas

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 18th that it has decided to implement a basic income social experiment in rural areas of Gyeonggi Province next year to broaden consensus on the necessity of introducing basic income and has begun preparatory work.

Gyeonggi Province explained that while the farmer basic income being promoted by the province targets individual farmers, this rural basic income differs in that it is a social experiment based on specific regions.

This is a preliminary demonstration project carried out before expanding basic income, which had been limited to certain groups or one-time payments such as Gyeonggi Province youth basic income or Gyeonggi Province emergency basic income, into a universal basic income for all citizens.

Through this rural basic income experiment, the province plans to examine how citizens' lives will change with the introduction of basic income and intends to provide basic income payments to all residents living in the relevant areas, not just farmers.

While basic income social experiments have been conducted in several countries including Finland, the United States, the Netherlands, and India, Gyeonggi Province is the first among 36 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries to conduct a social experiment in rural areas.

Accordingly, the province will pursue a social experiment design project as the first step toward the basic income social experiment. For the design project of the rural basic income social experiment, through competitive bidding, the Foundation for Regional Cooperation and the Agricultural and Farmers Policy Research Institute 'Nyeoreum' were selected as contractors, and a kick-off meeting was held on the 10th.

Through this design project, the province plans to present performance indicators, selection criteria for experimental villages, payment amounts and number of participants by the end of October. The province plans to select experimental villages by year-end and conduct preliminary surveys from next year before implementing basic income payments.

A Gyeonggi Province official stated, "Implementing a social experiment to develop a basic income introduction plan suitable for the Republic of Korea's situation in circumstances where each country has different economic and social conditions has great significance in laying the groundwork for the introduction of universal basic income for all citizens."

Meanwhile, the province is also promoting the introduction of farmer basic income. Unlike government direct payments or farmer allowances from other local governments, the plan is to provide individual farmers, not farms, with a fixed amount of regional currency monthly.

To this end, the province recently completed coordination with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on establishing new social security systems and is also pursuing the construction of an integrated support system for selecting farmer and rural basic income recipients, information management, payment management, and managing village autonomy regulations.