Gyeongbuk Youth Budget Ratio Shows 300-Fold Gap: 9.1% in Yeongju, 0.03% in Ulleung... Democratic Party Gyeongbuk Chapter Workshop

Urgent Need to Address Regional Disparities
Identifying Gaps in Youth Policy Commitment

The Youth Committee of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Chapter of the Democratic Party of Korea held the 'Gyeongbuk Youth Policy Networking Workshop' at Gumi YMCA on the 27th, where they discussed the current status of youth policies and budget disparities across regions, based on the '2025 Gyeongsangbuk-do Youth Policy White Paper'.

During the event, an awards ceremony for the Gyeongbuk Youth Policy Contest was also held. The Grand Prize went to 'Youth Rural Living Lab (Jo Wootak)', the Excellence Award to 'Youth Settlement Support Fund System (Kim Sunghyun)', and the Merit Award to 'Proposal for Employment Support for Youth with Intractable Diseases (Kim Sujin)'.

Gyeongbuk Youth Policy Networking Workshop

This workshop served as a venue for sharing the white paper, which summarizes the youth policy budgets and policy gaps among the 22 cities and counties in Gyeongbuk, and for local youth to directly explore directions for policy improvement.

According to the white paper, as of 2025, the proportion of youth budgets by city and county ranges from a maximum of 9.1% (Yeongju) to a minimum of 0.03% (Ulleung), showing a disparity of more than 300 times. The youth budget per capita also revealed a gap of more than sevenfold.

Youth participants emphasized, "The precision of policy direction is more important than the scale," and added, "It is necessary to address regional disparities and, in next year's local elections, to verify each candidate's understanding of and commitment to youth policies."

Kim Saerom, Chair of the Youth Committee of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Chapter of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated, "Through this white paper and contest, we were able to confirm the differences in Gyeongbuk youth policy with concrete figures," adding, "A region where youth can stay is a sustainable region. Youth must stand as the main agents of policy, not merely as its subjects."

The committee plans to carry out a project to evaluate youth policies by city and county and compare candidates' policies ahead of next year's local elections, based on the contents of this white paper.