Goyang City Council Cuts 174 Million KRW from Supplementary Budget
Goyang City Secures Project Funds with Gyeonggi Province Incentives
Project Aims to Reduce Wedding Costs and Address Low Birthrate Issues
The plan to establish a public wedding hall within a city-owned office building in Goyang Special City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Dong-hwan) was scrapped due to budget cuts by the city council in March.
According to Goyang Special City on the 18th, the city had planned to create a citizen wedding hall in the sky lounge on the 20th floor of the Baekseok-dong office building to alleviate the difficulties faced by engaged couples struggling to book wedding venues. Based on the "Act on the Establishment and Support of Sound Family Ceremonies," the project aimed to reduce wedding costs by providing a marriage ceremony venue and contribute to the spread of small wedding culture.
Accordingly, the city requested a budget allocation of 140 million KRW for interior construction and 34 million KRW for equipment purchase in the first supplementary budget for 2025. However, the entire budget was cut during the review by the Goyang City Council’s Budget and Accounts Special Committee, causing significant setbacks to the project.
Moreover, this project was planned to be promoted using incentive funds received from Gyeonggi Province as a reward for Goyang City being selected as an excellent city in the 2024 City and County Comprehensive Evaluation.
At a time when the low birthrate issue is becoming a national crisis, policies and support to ease the burden of marriage are more urgently needed. Nevertheless, the city council not only cut budgets related to population policies such as matchmaking events for unmarried men and women and population education during the 2025 main budget review last year but also completely cut the budget for the citizen wedding hall project in this supplementary budget review.
A Goyang Special City official stated, "Local governments such as Yongin in Gyeonggi Province are also utilizing indoor public facilities as wedding halls to provide free or low-cost support," adding, "We deeply regret the significant setback caused by the budget cut for the citizen wedding hall project and plan to continue pursuing the project through various alternative measures."
Meanwhile, as practical policies to address the low birthrate issue are needed, attention is focused on how the cancellation of this public wedding hall project will affect Goyang City’s youth policies overall in the future.
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