Anseong-si "Secured 33.7 Billion Won in Disaster Relief Funds... Will Execute Swiftly"

Issuance of 10 Billion Won Local Bonds Planned for Livelihood Stability
Mayor Kim Bora: "Prioritizing Livelihood in Next Year's Projects"

Anseong City in Gyeonggi Province secured 33.7 billion won in disaster relief funds at the end of last month to recover from heavy snowfall damage. The city plans to promptly distribute the support funds to affected farmers and small business owners, while also pursuing the issuance of local bonds worth 10 billion won to stabilize livelihoods.

Anseong City announced this during an emergency press briefing on the 23rd regarding the heavy snowfall damage support plan and livelihood safety measures.

Kim Bora, Mayor of Anseong City, is explaining the support plan for heavy snow damage during a press briefing on the 23rd. Photo by Anseong City

Mayor Kim Bora of Anseong stated, "With the declaration of a special disaster area on the 18th, we secured disaster relief funds totaling 33.7 billion won from national, provincial, and city budgets," adding, "We will implement swift and detailed support targeting small business owners, agriculture and livestock, and forestry sectors." Earlier, due to heavy snowfall on the 27th and 28th of last month, damage amounting to 177.4 billion won was confirmed across 6,972 private facilities including farms and small businesses in the Anseong area.

During the briefing, the city also revealed plans to distribute disaster relief funds by sector: ▲36 hundred million won for small business owners (10 million won per person, 360 people) ▲10.8 billion won for agriculture (at least 3 million won per person, about 2,500 farms) ▲10.7 billion won for livestock (at least 6 million won per person, about 680 farms) ▲570 million won for forestry (at least 1 million won per person, about 100 farms) ▲and 8 billion won for public facilities and others.

Separately, the city has prepared a total of 3.8 billion won, including ▲1.9 billion won from Gyeonggi Province's contingency and emergency recovery funds ▲1.2 billion won from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's special grants ▲700 million won from Anseong City's contingency funds, to be used for emergency recovery and demolition support for livestock facilities, equipment and demolition support for farms, and recovery support for small businesses and sports facilities.

To actively prepare livelihood stabilization measures, the city plans to issue local bonds worth 10 billion won next year. Additionally, dividing projects into budgeted and non-budgeted categories, the city will promote ▲expansion of local currency incentives and public delivery app support ▲expansion of special guarantees and secondary support for small business owners ▲support for vulnerable groups during winter ▲equipment and manpower support for damaged agriculture, livestock, and fisheries farms ▲expansion of fiscal spending and rapid execution of budgets ▲prompt processing of permits and local tax overpayment refunds ▲temporary reduction of citizen burdens and simplification of damage building demolition reports.

Furthermore, the city will request the government and Gyeonggi Province to ease loan criteria for damaged farms and provide additional special grants and disaster relief funds, while prioritizing support for heavy snowfall-affected farms in various subsidy projects.

Mayor Kim said, "Based on the fundamental policy of active fiscal expansion, regional economic revitalization, and recovery of the livelihood economy, we will do our best to ensure that next year's budget, prepared with the cooperation of the city council, passes swiftly."

Previously, on the 27th of last month, the city council's special committee on ordinance review rejected the city's local bond issuance plan. Subsequently, the city submitted a revised budget of 1.4943 trillion won for next year on the 4th of this month, but the city council has also put this on hold, requesting the formulation of its own disaster relief projects.