Yongin City to Waive Admission Fees at 107 Public Facilities for Families with Two or More Children

[Suwon Ilbo=Choi Ki-ho Reporter] Yongin Special City has decided to significantly discount admission fees at public facilities for citizens with two children, responding swiftly to the increasingly serious low birth rate phenomenon and reducing the burden of child-rearing costs for multi-child families.

The city announced on the 23rd that it will amend 15 related ordinances to broaden benefits for multi-child families by changing the definition of multi-child families from 'three or more children' to 'two or more children' and will offer 30-50% discounts on admission fees at 107 public facilities in the region including community centers, lifelong learning centers, and comprehensive childcare support centers.

The facilities subject to the waiver include 31 community centers in eup, myeon, and dong districts, the Yongin Youth Training Center, youth culture centers (3 locations), Yongin Lifelong Learning Center (2 locations), Yongin Multi-purpose Welfare Center (2 locations), Yongin Comprehensive Childcare Support Center (4 locations), and public paid parking lots (39 locations), totaling 107 facilities. Agricultural machinery rental services at the Yongin Agricultural Technology Center can also be used at half price.

Last November, the city amended the 'Ordinance on Installation and Operation of Yongin Community Centers' and provided 965 multi-child family citizens with waived course fees totaling 38,183,000 won for the first quarter from January to March this year. This represents approximately an eightfold increase compared to 128 students who received multi-child family discount benefits during the same period last year.

Previously, in December 2021, the city amended the 'Ordinance on Response to Low Birth Rate and Aging Society and Sustainable Development' to change the definition of multi-child households from three to two children and has been implementing projects including support for multi-child jeonse loan interest and celebration transportation expenses for multi-child births.

However, recognizing that more diverse support across various sectors is necessary to provide tangible benefits to multi-child families, the city is conducting a comprehensive survey of related ordinances and sequentially amending them.

Specifically, eight ordinances including the 'Ordinance on Installation and Operation of Yongin Media Centers' have changed the definition of multi-child families from 'three or more children' to 'two or more children'.

Seven ordinances such as the 'Ordinance on Installation and Operation of Yongin Youth Facilities' and the 'Ordinance on Installation and Operation of School Complex Facilities', which did not specify discount criteria for multi-child families, have newly established provisions to provide fee waivers for multi-child families with 'two or more children'.

Three ordinances including the 'Ordinance on Management and Operation of Yongin Natural Recreation Forest', which provides 50% discount on entrance fees, will collect opinions from the Yongin City Council by April with plans to amend the ordinances.

Mayor Lee Sang-il stated, "We have amended related ordinances to broaden the scope of support benefits for multi-child families so that they provide practical assistance in child-rearing," and added, "Going forward, we will do our best to discover and improve living policies that are directly related to citizens' lives so that citizens can feel that 'Yongin City has changed.'"