Chungnam Invests 183.9 Billion Won in Five Key Areas Including Youth Employment

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province will invest a budget of 183.9 billion KRW this year for customized support for local youth.

The province finalized and announced its youth policy implementation plan on the 22nd. The plan, under the vision of "Creating a Chungnam where youth want to live," includes improving and supplementing existing youth policy projects and expanding new projects.

First, the province set 123 tasks across five major areas for this year's youth policy. The budget allocation by area is ▲Jobs: 93.1 billion KRW for 54 tasks ▲Housing: 58.9 billion KRW for 7 tasks ▲Education: 12.6 billion KRW for 18 tasks ▲Welfare & Culture: 17.9 billion KRW for 29 tasks ▲Participation & Rights: 1.4 billion KRW for 15 tasks.

In the jobs sector, the province will focus on fostering young farmers, creating region-specific customized jobs, expanding work experience opportunities in the private and public sectors, and establishing a private-led youth startup ecosystem.

The housing sector focuses on expanding opportunities for youth to own homes and strengthening housing stability. Specifically, the province will actively supply the 84㎡ scale "Chungnam-type Live Together" housing and launch the "Rural Nest Creation Project" to promote youth inflow into rural areas and ensure housing stability.

Additionally, the youth housing lease deposit interest support project has been restructured to relax income conditions for youth, and applications have been accepted since the 1st of this month.

In education, the province will continue innovative talent development projects by strengthening links between companies and universities through establishing Chungnam-type contract departments, supporting software-centered universities, and operating the ICT Innovation Chungnam Square.

In welfare, projects will be promoted to support the independence of children aging out of care and to prevent isolation and loneliness among single-person youth households. In culture, efforts will focus on expanding leisure and cultural infrastructure to support youth settlement in the region.

The province will also organize dedicated teams for each sector to systematically manage this year's youth policy implementation plan. These teams will regularly monitor the progress of detailed tasks under the plan.

Jo Won-tae, Director of Youth Policy at the province, said, "We will do our best to make Chungnam a place where youth want to stay by continuously discovering and improving policies that youth desire."