Yeongyang County Wins Grand Prize at This Year's Basic Local Government Leaders Manifesto Competition

Nation's First and Only 'Health Checkup Program for Residents Aged 50 and Over'

Responding to Demographic Changes... Enhanced Health Welfare for Residents, Overcoming Population Decline

Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province (Governor Oh Dochang) was honored with the 'Grand Prize' in the field of responding to demographic changes at the '14th 2024 National Basic Local Government Manifesto Best Practices Competition' held at Inje University Gimhae Campus on the 31st.

O Dochang, Mayor of Yeongyang County, who won the Grand Prize at the 2024 Manifesto Competition.

This competition was held under the theme of 'Rewriting Local Government Resilience.' A total of 353 cases from 148 local governments nationwide were submitted across seven categories, including job creation, employment improvement, and reduction of inequality. After the first round of document screening, 186 cases competed in the finals.

Yeongyang County presented its 'First in the Nation: Health Checkup Project for All Residents Aged 50 and Over' as a best practice, introducing a customized health and safety welfare program for elderly regions using the Special Account for Underdeveloped Area Development Funds.

This project was highly evaluated by the judges as it demonstrated how 'external diseconomies' caused by large-scale wind power projects can be converted into 'external economies,' and highlighted the importance of efforts to retain the population as much as increasing it.

Yeongyang County was the only county-level local government nationwide to win the 'Grand Prize' in the field of responding to demographic changes, which is especially meaningful as it follows last year's 'Excellence Award' in 2023.

The Health Checkup Project for Residents supports actual health checkup costs up to 300,000 KRW per person for residents aged 50 and over from 2023 to 2026 (four years). By the end of June this year, over 2,600 residents had undergone health checkups, and 15 residents were diagnosed with cancer and received surgery or treatment.

At this competition, Yeongyang County also introduced its support for resident safety insurance premiums, which offer higher coverage items and limits compared to other local governments with larger populations, using the Special Account for Underdeveloped Areas.

Governor Oh Dochang said, "I am very pleased and honored that the nation's first health checkup project for residents aged 50 and over has been recognized as the best case nationwide," and added, "We will do our best to fulfill our pledge to improve the quality of life for residents and alleviate the burden of medical expenses through early disease detection."