Gyeonggi Province's Basic Income Policy Draws International Attention at Academic Conferences

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province's basic income policies, including youth basic income and disaster basic income, garnered international attention as they were introduced at the 'Indonesia Basic Income Network International Conference.'

Kim Jae-yong, Policy Pledge Senior Secretary of Gyeonggi Province, presented "Gyeonggi Province's Basic Income as Welfare-Oriented Economic Policy" on the 20th at 7 p.m. local time at the '2021 Indonesia Basic Income Network International Conference,' which was held online over three days from the 20th to the 22nd.

Senior Secretary Kim Jae-yong began by explaining the background behind the creation of Gyeonggi Province's basic income policy and revealed the psychological and economic effectiveness demonstrated through the provision of youth basic income and disaster basic income.

Secretary Kim stated, "Gyeonggi Province's disaster basic income, which was distributed to overcome the economic crisis in people's livelihoods triggered by COVID-19, had an additional consumption effect 1.85 times the amount distributed," and emphasized, "This high policy effectiveness was possible because, unlike disaster relief funds in other countries around the world, the funds were provided as regional currency with restricted periods and usage locations rather than cash."

He continued, "Gyeonggi Province, having already confirmed the welfare and economic effectiveness of basic income through disaster basic income, is taking a step further by preparing a social experiment on rural basic income to conduct in-depth effectiveness analysis and identify supplementary measures. This will serve as an important foundation on the journey toward universal basic income."

The 'Indonesia Basic Income Network International Conference' is an event hosted by various organizations (IndoBIG Network, UBI LAB Jakarta, IBP, KPRI, etc.) composed of individuals, activists, and leaders from diverse fields who are interested in policy development for implementing basic income and building nationwide consensus. At the event, Sarath Davala, chair of the Basic Income Earth Network from India, and Dr. Ali Mutlu Koyluoglu from Turkey's Citizen Basic Income Research, Development, Culture and Promotion Association also participated, sharing basic income policy cases from their respective countries and regions while reiterating the necessity of basic income.

Following participation in this conference, Gyeonggi Province plans to present Gyeonggi Province's disaster basic income case at the 'American Society for Public Administration' in April and present Gyeonggi Province's rural basic income social experiment case at the 'American Basic Income Experiment Academic Conference' in June.

Senior Secretary Kim Jae-yong stated, "Following coverage of Gyeonggi Province's basic income cases by numerous global media outlets including Japan's Nikkei (September), America's Foreign Policy (September), America's The DIPLOMAT (June), Bloomberg (October), and Wall Street Journal (October) last year, growing interest from overseas academic conferences is evidence that basic income is no longer a controversial agenda, but has become a timely challenge requiring realistic discussions on how to implement it according to the principles of universality, individuality, and regularity."

Senior Secretary Kim also said regarding Gyeonggi Province's implementation of the second disaster basic income, "If government disaster relief funds that directly support those suffering damage in the COVID-19 situation and Gyeonggi Province's disaster basic income that provides universal support are implemented together, we expect to create even higher synergies."