Support of Eco-Friendly Agricultural Products Worth 450,000 KRW for 20,000 Pregnant Women in Gyeonggi-do

Gyeonggi-do Is the Only Region Supporting Pregnant Women with Its Own Budget Amid Government Funding Cuts

An eco-friendly agricultural product package worth approximately 450,000 KRW annually, provided by Gyeonggi Province using its own budget to 20,000 pregnant women in the province

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will launch its own project this year called the 'Eco-friendly Agricultural Products Support Project for Pregnant Women.' To this end, applications will be accepted from the 1st to the 28th of next month.

Applicants must reside in one of the 31 cities and counties within the province and be either currently pregnant as of the application date or have given birth since January 1, 2022. If the number of applicants exceeds the quota, 20,000 recipients will be selected through a lottery.

Pregnant women wishing to apply should prepare supporting documents such as a birth certificate or pregnancy confirmation and visit Ecoimall or their local eup/myeon/dong community service center to submit their application.

Selected pregnant women can place orders until November 30 of this year. Each individual can order 1 to 4 times per month, paying a 20% co-payment, and receive eco-friendly agricultural products worth a total of 480,000 KRW.

Kim Chung-beom, Director of the Agricultural, Fisheries and Life Sciences Bureau of the province, stated, "This project has a very high satisfaction rate among pregnant women, so despite difficult financial conditions, we have secured the provincial budget to carry it out. We hope for the interest and active participation of pregnant women. If the number of applicants is large, we plan to actively seek additional support through supplementary budgets."

The Eco-friendly Agricultural Products Support Project for Pregnant Women was piloted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs from 2020 to 2022 as a three-year trial. However, it was not included in this year’s government budget.

Nevertheless, Gyeonggi Province has independently secured 2.3 billion KRW of provincial funds (and 5.4 billion KRW from city and county funds) to support 20,000 people. Among metropolitan local governments nationwide, Gyeonggi Province is the only one to continue this project with its own budget despite the discontinuation of national funding.