Yongin City's Financial Self-Reliance and Autonomy Rates Surge Significantly

Yongin City's financial self-reliance rate and financial autonomy rate for last year ranked 3rd and 4th respectively among Gyeonggi Province and its 31 cities and counties.

According to the city on the 28th, Yongin City's financial self-reliance rate for 2013 was 60.52%, rising 15 ranks from 2012's 45.26% to secure 3rd place. Additionally, Yongin City's 2013 financial autonomy rate was 74.42%, rising a remarkable 27 ranks from the previous year's 57.21% to record 4th place.

This was confirmed when the Ministry of the Interior and Safety released the financial status of 243 local governments nationwide covering 17 items including financial self-reliance rates, debt ratios, and social welfare spending ratios on October 20 of last year on its homepage.

Generally, financial self-reliance rate and financial autonomy rate serve as key indicators for evaluating the fiscal soundness of local governments.

The financial self-reliance rate indicates the independence of a local government's financial resource procurement, referring to the ratio of independent financial resources (local taxes and non-tax income) to total financial resources. A high financial self-reliance rate means the local government has strong financial capacity to generate its own revenue.

The financial autonomy rate indicates a local government's actual capacity to utilize financial resources. It includes local transfer taxes and fiscal transfer funds that local governments can use autonomously in the index, referring to the ratio that independent financial resources and autonomous resources account for among local government revenues. It targets the general account.

Due to this disclosure by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Yongin City had previously been perceived as a local government with worsened finances due to challenging issues such as light rail transit and the Yeokbuk district development. However, the actual financial foundation has proven to be stable, with expectations that this will provide momentum for future city administration.

Regarding light rail transit debt, Yongin City repaid 140.2 billion won in debt in 2015, significantly lowering its debt ratio, and once it completes implementation of its debt management plan by 2016, it is expected to quickly recover fiscal soundness. All other debt will be repaid in stages without delay by 2018 to place fiscal operations on a stable track.

A city official stated, "Going forward, we will make every effort to secure a sound financial foundation by continuously improving budget efficiency through expenditure structure restructuring and thoroughly implementing preliminary procedures such as investment reviews."

Yongin City's 2014 fiscal budget is 1.8176 trillion won (reflecting the third supplementary budget for 2014).