Gyeonggi Province Concentrates Efforts on Resolving Unfairness and Inequality...Announces 'Zero Unfairness and Inequality: 7 Major Strategies'

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun, Reporter] Gyeonggi Province has established 'inequality resolution' strategies by sector—including economy, region, and labor—to address polarization that has become more severe since the COVID-19 pandemic.

From basic series policies such as basic income, basic housing, and basic loans to representative Gyeonggi Province policies including low-credit lending, Gyeonggi regional currency, and pediatric dentist program for elementary students, these have been selected as key initiatives for inequality resolution and will be pursued with greater care.

Huh Seung-beom, Gyeonggi Province Policy Planning Director, held a press conference at Gyeonggi Provincial Government on the 21st and announced the 'Gyeonggi Province Zero Unfairness and Inequality Promotion Strategy' containing these details.

Policy Planning Director Huh said, "The prolonged pandemic without precedent and skyrocketing housing prices are deepening residents' economic and psychological suffering, and polarization is intensifying as the damage from COVID-19 concentrates on vulnerable groups." He explained the policy promotion background, adding, "Gyeonggi Province has decided to form a dedicated task force to gather inequality resolution projects scattered across departments and concentrate administrative capacity to solve these problems."

The 'Gyeonggi Province Zero Unfairness and Inequality Strategy' announced today is composed of 7 major sectors, 20 key initiatives, and 73 implementation tasks under the vision of 'realizing fair and just Gyeonggi through sector-specific inequality resolution.'

The '7 major sectors' are ▲Economic inequality resolution to mitigate economic inequality ▲Regional inequality resolution to alleviate regional imbalance ▲Labor inequality resolution to eliminate labor market instability ▲Platform status inequality resolution to establish fair market order ▲Educational inequality resolution to expand equal educational opportunities ▲Healthcare inequality resolution to expand basic healthcare rights ▲Cultural inequality resolution to improve cultural equity.

The province plans to invest a total of 13.3627 trillion won, including 1.8553 trillion won in provincial funds as of this year, across 73 projects.

Additionally, the province will establish a dedicated task force headed by the Director of Planning and Coordination, composed of seven executives from major divisions, to closely manage implementation tasks and plans to develop medium- and long-term inequality resolution measures and continuously identify new projects.

■ Mitigating Economic Inequality

As an 'Economic Inequality Resolution Plan' to mitigate economic inequality, the province has selected three key initiatives: promoting basic series policies to guarantee economic basic rights, support for resolving wage gaps, and eliminating welfare blind spots through support for vulnerable groups, and will implement 11 projects by investing a total of 12.713 trillion won.

Representative projects for task implementation include basic series policies such as basic income, basic housing, and basic finance; youth basic income; non-regular worker fairness allowances paid to temporary workers at the province and public institutions; "Food Sharing Dream Corners" to prevent hardship from COVID-19; and low-credit loans that lend small amounts at low interest rates to residents with credit grades of 7 or below.

■ Mitigating and Resolving Regional Imbalance

To mitigate and resolve inter-regional imbalance, the province has designated three key initiatives—development support for areas affected by regulations and other underdeveloped regions, expansion of public transportation services in neglected areas, and creating evenly distributed basic living infrastructure by region—and will implement 13 execution projects worth 237.2 billion won.

The province will expand support projects for areas surrounding military bases and areas providing land, and expand projects for establishing basic infrastructure in border regions. It will provide public buses and welfare taxis to areas with transportation challenges and expand water supply and city gas pipeline networks in areas with vulnerable basic living infrastructure.

■ Resolving Labor Market Instability

Aiming to guarantee proper labor rights for all workers, the province has identified three key initiatives—guaranteeing workers' right to rest, creating safe working environments, and expanding and strengthening labor rights protection. 11.3 billion won will be invested in 9 projects.

The province will expand support for rest facilities for security guards and cleaners and rest areas for mobile workers, and will begin providing industrial accident insurance subsidies to delivery workers.

The province will expand labor safety inspectors to all 31 cities and counties to strengthen worker safety in industrial sites and will strengthen rights in vulnerable labor sectors through operation of a dedicated support center for delivery workers.

■ Establishing Fair Market Order

The province will implement 14 projects worth 256.8 billion won to resolve platform status inequality and establish fair market order.

To restrict unfair transaction practices through paper company crackdowns, construction of fair procurement systems, and illegal private financing crackdowns, and to create a fair transaction environment, the province will expand Gyeonggi-type fair contract standards and project payment confirmation systems.

Additionally, to resolve the competitiveness gap for small business owners in alley markets competing against major capital, the province will actively promote projects such as establishing a public delivery app platform and expanding regional currency issuance.

■ Expanding Equal Educational Opportunities

To resolve learning gaps among residents and provide non-discriminatory educational support to underprivileged groups, the province will invest 10.2 billion won in 7 implementation projects.

To resolve inequality in non-face-to-face learning environments that have become routine since COVID-19, the province will support remote classes for elementary students and expand provision of lectures to overcome digital divide within the lifelong learning portal (GSEEK).

The province will improve websites to enhance web accessibility for people with disabilities and will support Korean language education for marriage immigrants and multicultural families to facilitate social adaptation.

■ Expanding Basic Healthcare Rights

The province will expand public infrastructure worth 93.1 billion won and implement healthcare support projects for vulnerable groups so that residents can receive quality healthcare services at the right time, regardless of location.

The province will establish public postpartum care centers in areas with insufficient medical services and will expand universal basic healthcare projects including the pediatric dentist program for elementary students and provision of basic sanitary products for adolescent girls.

Additionally, the province will continue projects such as providing treatment subsidies for low-income persons with mental illness and supporting health insurance premiums for low-income elderly households so people do not forgo treatment due to lack of funds.

■ Enhancing Cultural Equity

To enhance cultural equity among residents, the province will implement 10 execution tasks worth 41 billion won. Through integrated cultural, sports, and tourism usage rights, promotion of arts and culture for persons with disabilities, and arts activity support projects for vulnerable groups, the province will expand cultural experience opportunities for vulnerable groups, and will resolve cultural gaps between regions through traveling cultural activities in all 31 cities and counties.

To strengthen the self-reliance of cultural and arts workers, the province will implement projects to protect artists' rights and support creative activities.

The Gyeonggi Province dedicated task force will monitor the progress of sectoral projects without disruption, while soliciting opinions from various sectors including private experts and civic organizations to additionally identify key initiatives and reflect them in next year's regular budget.

Additionally, the province plans to establish medium- and long-term plans for resolving sectoral inequality to develop long-term vision and strategy.

Director Huh said, "Gyeonggi Province has formulated the best possible strategy within the maximum scope that the province can achieve, recognizing that only resolving unfairness and inequality is the way to integration and development of our society. To resolve polarization, a task of our times, and realize a fair world where all residents live well together, we will refine the inequality resolution strategy more precisely and execute it carefully."