Gyeonggi Province Public Institutions' Eco-Friendly Product Purchase Rate Soars

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 27th that the eco-friendly product purchase rate of public institutions within the province has more than doubled.

According to the 'Eco-Friendly Product Consumer Activation Plan' report released by the province on that day, the eco-friendly product purchase rate of public institutions in the province last year reached 64%, up 37.1 percentage points from 26.9% in 2005.

By institution, Gyeonggi Provincial Government purchased 51.2% (approximately 9.776 billion won) last year, followed by Anyang City at 92.7% (approximately 940 million won), Yeoju at 91.2% (approximately 347 million won), and Siheung at 91.0% (approximately 1.213 billion won) among cities and counties.

In 2004, the province's eco-friendly product purchase rate was 8.8%, recording the lowest among metropolitan entities nationwide, while Incheon was 23.9%, Busan 24.2%, Daegu 27.1%, and South Gyeongsang Province 30.3%, indicating lagging purchases.

To increase the eco-friendly product purchase rate, the province enacted a purchase promotion ordinance for eco-friendly products last year and conducted training programs on eco-friendly product purchases for provincial and municipal government officials.

The province plans to henceforth establish guidelines requiring construction-related departments to purchase eco-friendly products on a mandatory basis and to stipulate conditions for using eco-friendly products in contract documents when issuing project bids.

A provincial official stated, "Some still hold prejudices that eco-friendly products are expensive or that product quality may be inferior," adding, "We plan to request purchases not only from the province and municipalities but also from various corporations at all levels."