Seoul Proposes 55.7 Trillion Won Budget for Next Year, Focusing on Youth AI and Housing Stability

[Anchor]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has drafted a budget of approximately 55.7 trillion won for next year. Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced that the budget will be heavily invested in supporting young adults and ensuring housing stability.

Reporter Yun Nara brings us this week's news from Seoul.

[Reporter]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced its 2027 budget proposal totaling 55 trillion 744.5 billion won.

This represents an 8.3 percent increase from this year, with funds heavily allocated to five major areas: vibrant opportunity city, housing stability city, accompanying growth city, healthy safety city, and spatial innovation city.

[Oh Se-hoon / Mayor of Seoul: While maintaining a sound fiscal stance without increasing debt, we have strived to expand investments for the lives of citizens and the future of Seoul.]

First, to bridge the AI usage gap among young adults, 26.6 billion won has been allocated for the "Youth AI Growth Voucher" project, which will provide generative AI access passes to 500,000 young people. Additionally, about 1.1 trillion won will be poured into supplying some 27,000 public rental housing units, concentrating the budget on supporting youth AI and housing stability.

The budget for Mayor Oh Se-hoon's signature policy, "Accompaniment with the Weaker," will increase by 13.1 percent from this year to reach 17 trillion 689.2 billion won, with intensive investments also going toward the nighttime economy, citizen health, and safety sectors.

Despite rising mandatory expenditures driven by the expansion of government welfare programs, the city government stated it will not increase its debt size, planning to manage next year-end debt at around 11 trillion 569 billion won, similar to this year's projected 11 trillion 569.5 billion won.

This budget proposal will be submitted to the Seoul Metropolitan Council today (October 30).

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With crowds expected to flock to major downtown areas in Seoul for Halloween this Saturday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the Hongdae Special Tourist Zone to inspect the joint response system and on-site safety management measures.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to further strengthen on-site responses to prevent accidents by deploying around 300 safety management personnel to the Hongdae Special Tourist Zone, utilizing safety facilities such as crowd-detecting CCTVs and emergency bells, and securing pedestrian space through vehicle control.

Mayor Oh stated, "We will fully mobilize advanced scientific monitoring and a 24-hour on-site joint response network to make thorough preparations so that everyone can spend Halloween safely."

[Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.