▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hun speaks during an open talk session for the "Youth AI Growth Voucher Support Pilot Project" held at the Seoul City Hall conference room on October 27.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is pushing ahead once again with a project to provide generative artificial intelligence access passes to 500,000 young people.
Although the related budget was completely cut during this year's supplementary budget review, the city has allocated 26.6 billion won in the main budget for next year.
Seoul announced its 2027 budget proposal totaling 55.7445 trillion won today (October 29).
The city explained that the budget proposal focuses heavily on reducing opportunity gaps among young people.
In particular, as AI proficiency has become a vital competency for employment and economic activities, the city stated it aims to prevent disparities in AI service costs or educational opportunities from leading to employment and income gaps.
To this end, 26.6 billion won has been assigned to the "Youth AI Growth Voucher" project, which will provide generative AI access passes to 500,000 young people.
Previously, the Seoul Metropolitan Government allocated 5.625 billion won for this project in this year's supplementary budget.
However, the budget was entirely cut during the Seoul City Council's review process.
The Democratic Party members of the City Council explained the reason for the cuts by stating that while they agree with the intent of the project, concrete plans regarding the target recipients and service methods were lacking.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hun stated during a meeting with young people the day before, "If the budget is simply passed, we are preparing to execute it starting right from January."
Budgets have also been allocated for the night-time economy revitalization project, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government has been prioritizing.
The "Dalbit Yajang" project, which hosts nighttime events in alleyway commercial districts, has allocated 10.5 billion won to newly select 10 second-phase target sites, following the existing 6 locations.
Additionally, 1.9 billion won was allocated for establishing nighttime athletic facilities in Hangang Parks, and 10 billion won was designated for improving the nighttime landscape around the Jamwon Hangang Park area.
Housing support is also expanding.
A total of 126.2 billion won will be injected into youth monthly rent support, expanding the number of recipients from 23,000 this year to 32,000 next year.
75.8 billion won has been allocated to support rental deposit loan interest for homeless newlyweds and young people.
Budgets have also been assigned to the Rapid Integrated Planning 2.0 and Moa Town and Moa House projects, which support private urban maintenance projects such as redevelopment and reconstruction.
Furthermore, 123.2 billion won has been allocated for compensation and other costs to create a large-scale downtown park around the Sewoon District.
However, controversies surrounding the development of the Sewoon District continue to persist over concerns about damaging the scenery of Jongmyo Shrine.
The issue is whether these project budgets can successfully pass the deliberation of the City Council.
Currently, out of the total 118 seats in the Seoul City Council, the Democratic Party holds 80 seats.
The Democratic Party also cut budgets related to the Youth AI Growth Voucher and night-time economy revitalization during the supplementary budget review last September.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to submit the budget proposal to the City Council tomorrow (October 30).
The City Council will open a regular session starting on November 2 to deliberate on next year's budget proposal in earnest.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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