Yeosu City Makes Every Effort to Secure National Treasury Funds through Visits to Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Ministry of Economy and Finance

Mayor Jeong Gi-myeong, Requests Special Grant Support for Island Expo Hosting, etc.

Jeong Gi-myeong, the mayor of Yeosu City, Jeollanam-do, visited the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 26th to actively begin efforts to secure national funding for the next year.

This visit aimed to maximize the reflection of local issues in the government budget to realize the 'Global Marine Tourism and Leisure City' and the 'Yeosu Bay Renaissance.'

Jeong Gi-myeong, Mayor of Yeosu City, is meeting with Choi Byung-kwan, Director of Local Finance and Economy at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, to request special grant support for the preparation of the 2026 Yeosu World Islands Expo.
(Photo: Jeong Gi-myeong, second from the left, Mayor; Choi Byung-kwan, third from the left, Director of Local Finance and Economy) [Photo by Yeosu City]

In particular, with the 2026 Yeosu World Islands Expo just two and a half years away, the mayor expressed his determination to focus on securing national funds due to the increased local financial burden caused by difficult local fiscal conditions such as a decrease in local allocation tax and self-generated revenue.

On this day, Mayor Jeong met sequentially with Choi Byung-gwan, Director of Local Finance and Economy at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety; Jin Seon-ju, Head of the Allocation Tax Division; Jo Yong-beom, Social Budget Review Officer; Hwang Soon-gwan, Economic Budget Review Officer; and Ahn Sang-yeol, Welfare and Safety Budget Review Officer at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, explaining the necessity of each sector's pending projects and requesting national funding support.

First, in the morning, he visited the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and proposed three items for special allocation tax support to build basic infrastructure for preparing the 2026 Yeosu World Islands Expo international event: ▲ Construction of infrastructure and parking lots at the main venue of the 2026 Yeosu World Islands Expo ▲ Expansion of the access road to the main venue and environmental maintenance projects ▲ Installation of smart lighting around the Expo site.

Mayor Jeong emphasized that establishing electrical, communication, and drainage facilities and creating parking lots at the Dolsan-eup main venue are essential projects to prevent traffic congestion and resolve bottlenecks, which are critical for the successful operation of the Islands Expo event.

In the afternoon, he visited the Ministry of Economy and Finance and actively requested support to ensure that major local pending projects are reflected as much as possible in the 2025 government budget proposal.

The main proposed projects include ▲ Gwangyang (Ⅳ) Industrial Water Supply Project ▲ Installation of sewage treatment facilities in Jangchon and Jukchon villages, Samsan-myeon ▲ Dredging and maintenance of polluted sediments at Seonso Port ▲ Dredging project for shipyard concentration sites in Yeosu City ▲ Establishment of a master plan for the post-use of the Yeosu World Expo site ▲ Introduction of a large-capacity fire-fighting system in the Honam region.

In particular, the 'Dredging and Maintenance of Polluted Sediments at Seonso Port' project, which was previously dredged in 2006, was emphasized as an essential project to prevent severe odors caused by polluted sediments in the sea in front of Seonso and to improve water quality through purification work.

Additionally, the 'Introduction of a Large-Capacity Fire-Fighting System in the Honam Region' was justified as necessary for rapid disaster response to flooding damage caused by concentrated heavy rains and typhoons due to climate change, in accordance with the phased construction plan of the fire-fighting system by the National Fire Agency.

Mayor Jeong Gi-myeong of Yeosu City stated, “We will do our best until the government budget is finalized, including establishing a close cooperation system with the central government to ensure that our city's major pending projects are reflected from the budget formulation stage of the ministries.”