Busan City Wins Presidential Award at the '2024 Korea Local Finance Awards'

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Hosts '2024 Republic of Korea Local Finance Awards', Selected No.1 Nationwide Metropolitan Local Government in 'Integrated Financial Management Evaluation' Category

Mayor Park Hyung-jun: "We Will Strengthen Financial Support and Do Our Best in Financial Management to Realize a Citizen Happiness City and Global Hub City"

On the 19th, Busan City was awarded the Presidential Prize as the top metropolitan local government in the 'Integrated Financial Management Evaluation' category at the '2024 17th Korea Local Finance Awards Ceremony' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Busan City received the Presidential Award at the '2024 Korea Local Finance Awards'. Photo by Busan City

The 'Integrated Financial Management Capability Evaluation' is a newly established category this year. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety evaluated the comprehensive financial management capabilities of metropolitan and basic local governments by grouping them based on 10 indicators across four key areas representing core achievements in local finance and taxation: revenue increase, expenditure efficiency, local finance execution, and financial planning and management.

The 10 indicators across the four areas include local tax delinquency collection rate, reduction of local subsidies, administrative operation cost reduction, prompt execution, and fund maintenance performance.

As a result, the city was highly recognized for its efforts in efficient local financial management and achieved the great success of receiving the Presidential Prize as the top metropolitan government.

Additionally, the city was selected as an excellent metropolitan government in the 'Local Finance Best Practices' category and received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award.

In the 'Local Finance Best Practices' category, the city was recognized as an excellent organization for its innovation in local subsidy management by emphasizing 'strengthening subsidy project management through systematic operational evaluation and stage-by-stage inspection.'

Lastly, the city also received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award as the second place among metropolitan local governments in the resident participation budget category.

The city was selected as an excellent metropolitan government due to positive evaluations of its regional visiting resident participation budget schools, youth consulting groups and youth budget schools, and online and offline promotional activities for resident participation budgeting.

Since 2008, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has selected and awarded excellent cases of local governments nationwide for expenditure reduction and revenue expansion through the 'Local Finance Best Practices Presentation Contest.' Since 2022, reflecting the increase in the scale and status of local finance, the awards have been expanded and reorganized into the 'Korea Local Finance Awards.'

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “Receiving good evaluations in various fields of local financial management is the result of efforts to operate local finances efficiently despite challenging revenue conditions. I am especially pleased to be recognized as the best metropolitan government in the newly established integrated financial management evaluation this year.” He added, “We will continue to cherish the resources entrusted by our citizens and do our best in financial management to strengthen financial support for realizing a happy city for citizens and a global hub city.”