The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) submitted to the Seoul Metropolitan Council its budget for 2017 totaling KRW 29 trillion and 652.5 billion, increased by KRW 2 trillion and 148.7 billion (7.8%) compared to 2016’s budget.

Compared with the budgets that have consecutively increased over the last 6 years, the year-to-year increase margin is the largest this time. The main causes of this increase are strengthened support for the autonomous districts and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education as well as increased budgets for welfare, urban safety, housing, job creation, etc.

The 2017 budget was organized as a budget for the ‘Removal of Anxiety for Citizens’ Relief’ focusing on the keywords of ① Safety ② Jobs, and ③ Welfare. The resource allocation for the SOC (social overhead capital) projects, which have significant effects on job creation, was expanded to reach KRW 1 trillion and 991.3 billion in total, increased by 16.1% over the previous year.

The SMG is going to positively invest in the sectors fundamental to civic life to protect citizens’ safety, jobs and welfare accordingly to overcome hardships together by expanding its fiscal spending even under difficult financial conditions as the citizens’ livelihood indicators such as youth unemployment, household debt and economic growth rate are at terrible levels.

In order to make Seoul special, the SMG also introduced a ‘Seoul-type Budget’ for ▴ living wages ▴ emotional laborer protection projects ▴ management of comfort women records ▴ commemorative project for the 100th anniversary of the March First Independence Movement ▴ sanitary pad supply support project, and so on.