Suwon City Festival Budget Exceeds Gyeonggi Province's

Suwon City spent more on festivals and events last year than Gyeonggi Province. In particular, Suwon City's festival and event budget ranked fourth among the nation's 16 metropolitan and provincial governments, following Incheon, Jeju, and Seoul.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced on the 28th that based on the 2007 final accounts, it analyzed the execution results of event and festival expenses across local governments. The total event and festival expenses executed by local governments nationwide last year amounted to 691.2 billion won.

The local government event and festival expenses, disclosed for the first time, exclude 36.5 billion won in expenses for international events and the National Sports Festival recognized by the Office of the President's Chief of Staff among various expenses executed by each local government for events and festivals.

The disclosed event and festival expenses accounted for 1.62% of all self-funded project expenditures (42.6 trillion won) by local governments nationwide last year and 1.59% of local tax revenue (43.5 trillion won) excluding non-tax revenue.

The local government that spent the most on events and festivals last year was Incheon City with 16.1 billion won in budget execution, followed by Jeju Province (15.2 billion won), Seoul City (15 billion won), and Suwon City (13.9 billion won).

In particular, Suwon City executed more budget than Gyeonggi Province (13.5 billion won), Busan City (12.5 billion won), and North Chungcheong Province (11.5 billion won), among 13 of the nation's 16 metropolitan and provincial governments. Among basic local governments, Seongnam City followed Suwon City with 11.7 billion won.

Local government event and festival expenses recorded increases of 22-23% year-over-year in 2003 (373.1 billion won), 2004 (460 billion won), and 2005 (564.3 billion won). In 2006, the increase was 7.9%, and last year it was 13.5%.

Among 246 local governments, 184 saw increased event and festival expenses last year compared to the previous year. By metropolitan government increase rates, Seoul City showed the highest increase rate, rising 52.2% from 9.85 billion won in 2006 to 14.99 billion won in 2007.

Additionally, 21 local governments used 5% or more of their self-funded project expenditures on event and festival expenses in 2007, including Ulsan Northern District (8.9%), Sokcho City, Gangwon Province (8.5%), Taebaek City (8.3%), Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province (8.2%), and Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province (7.6%).

Thirty-one locations were also found to have spent 20% or more of their local tax revenue (excluding non-tax revenue) on festival and event expenses, including Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province (78.9%), Ulleung County (58.9%), Yanggu County, Gangwon Province (43.4%), Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province (39.2%), and Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province (39.1%).

Accordingly, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security decided to review whether there are wasteful factors in local government budgets for events and festivals and recommend voluntary coordination and integration of events and festivals to local governments nationwide. In addition, it plans to develop improvement measures for events and festivals with concerns about popularity-seeking or wasteful spending based on the 2010 budget compilation standards and distribute them to each local government.