Suwon's 'pinpoint support' for COVID-19 recovery begins in earnest

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City is launching a second round of Suwon-style emergency disaster relief focused on intensive support for COVID-19 victims.

The city prepared a '2021 First General and Special Account Revenue and Expenditure Supplementary Budget Plan' worth 49.846 billion won, focused on 'living stability support' and 'local economic recovery', and announced on March 1st that it submitted the plan to the Suwon City Council on the 26th of last month.

This first supplementary budget plan will be finalized on the 11th after deliberation and approval by the City Council.

Accordingly, once the budget plan is confirmed, residents' livelihood protection will be the priority focus for living stability support. A living stability support payment of 500,000 won each will be provided to 10,000 citizens—special employment workers and freelancers whose work has drastically decreased since COVID-19—and 2,000 unemployed youth struggling with job placement difficulties, totaling 60 billion won in investment.

Additionally, support funds will be provided to small business owners and other 'victims of goodwill' who cooperated with the government's quarantine measures, serving as a catalyst for local economic recovery. A total of 14.3 billion won will be provided: 1 million won each to 4,800 businesses in gathering-prohibited sectors and 500,000 won each to 19,000 businesses in gathering-restricted sectors.

In addition, the supplementary budget includes ▲2.4 billion won for small business owner special guarantees and fees ▲50 million won for food waste volume-rate garbage bag distribution to small restaurants (general and rest restaurants of 200㎡ or less, 15,000 establishments) ▲2 billion won for Suwon Pay incentives ▲1.53 billion won for delivery service activation, etc., to stimulate local economic revitalization.

Funding will be secured through net accumulated surplus of 36.7 billion won, national treasury subsidy of 7.8 billion won, 2.3 billion won through expenditure restructuring, and 3.1 billion won from disaster management fund reserves.

As a result, Suwon City's 2021 budget scale increased from the originally planned 2.6627 trillion won to 2.7072 trillion won, an increase of 44.5 billion won.

This first supplementary budget focuses on Suwon-style emergency disaster relief projects that swiftly remedy 'victims of goodwill' who cooperated with the government's quarantine measures amid prolonged COVID-19, and complement policy blind spots where the central government and provincial authorities provided support.

Previously, to enable swift support before the Lunar New Year holiday, the first round of Suwon-style emergency disaster relief was promoted using reserve funds and disaster management funds without separate supplementary budget compilation. This supplementary budget also reflects 800 million won replenishment of the disaster management fund and 7.8 billion won in pre-enactment budget from that first relief effort.

On March 10th, Suwon City conducted nine support projects to aid childcare blind spots such as childcare facilities and private kindergartens, and to remedy damages to artists, travel industries, and transportation sectors. Three exemption support projects—including property tax reduction for good landlords, exemption of shared property usage and loan fees, and waiver of bus terminal facility usage fees—were also implemented simultaneously.

Additionally, to swiftly respond to the COVID-19 situation following the supplementary budget, the city increased reserve funds by 15 billion won.

Meanwhile, last year the city proactively supported damages from COVID-19 spread by compiling supplementary budget plans in four stages, conducting disaster basic income payments and disaster relief projects.

Kwon Chan-ho, Director of Planning and Coordination, stated, "In response to the unprecedented crisis caused by prolonged COVID-19, we have compiled the fastest supplementary budget in Suwon's history" and added, "We will make every effort to immediately rescue Suwon citizens pushed into a livelihood crisis."