[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 15th that it has selected 15 outstanding regional balanced New Deal projects through a public contest.
The regional balanced New Deal outstanding project contest was conducted to discover excellent cases that residents can feel firsthand, aiming to achieve early results of the regional balanced New Deal and to enhance public awareness of the initiative.
From March 24 for one month, a call for regional balanced New Deal projects tailored to regional characteristics was made to 243 local governments, resulting in a total of 252 projects submitted by 161 local governments. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducted a second online public vote through the Gwanghwamun 1st Street website for projects selected in the first round of document screening. A record number of 23,689 people participated in the vote, selecting 24 outstanding projects.
The 24 projects selected through the second public vote underwent evaluation by experts (50%) and representatives of city and provincial delegations (50%) at the regional balanced New Deal outstanding project competition. For the 15 projects finally selected as outstanding, the Ministry plans to provide financial incentives (30 billion KRW) by the end of July to facilitate smooth project implementation, serving as seed money for local governments to promote regional balanced New Deal projects.
Daejeon Metropolitan City's project, "A New World Opened by Drones! Establishment of Drone Highway," maximizes the region's abundant drone industry infrastructure by building a drone highway along Daejeon's three major rivers with a control center and drone station. Through various drone service demonstration projects closely linked to citizens' lives, it aims to create a drone industry ecosystem by preventing disasters such as urban environment risks, nighttime safety, and facility hazards, supporting and fostering drone small and medium enterprises, and discovering new drone services, positioning Daejeon as a mecca of the drone industry.
Gyeongsangbuk-do's project, "Livestock Manure-Based BIO-REFINERY Industry Promotion," addresses the challenges of poor composting conditions for livestock manure and lack of composting space for livestock farms due to the region's characteristics of having many mountainous areas and few plains compared to other regions. By establishing solid fuel manufacturing facilities for livestock manure and distributing dedicated boilers for solid fuel from livestock manure, the project aims to create a green-friendly environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farms and alleviating soil eutrophication, thereby establishing a sustainable foundation for livestock development.
Minister Jeon Hae-cheol emphasized, "The regional balanced New Deal outstanding project contest aims to discover high-quality and creative projects suited to regional characteristics to achieve early results of the regional balanced New Deal and secure momentum for regional economic innovation." He added, "We will provide financial support and administrative assistance such as institutional improvements to ensure the selected projects are successfully implemented and produce results."
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