In order to reduce the damage from natural disasters caused by climate change, such as extreme rainfall and temperature, Gyeonggi Province has changed its fund management policy to actively use the Disaster Management Fund. Previously limited to disaster response and recovery, the fund will also be utilized for disaster prevention and preparedness projects, and will extend support not only to public facilities under the jurisdiction of the province, but also to those under the jurisdiction of cities and counties.

On January 15, Gyeonggi Province announced that it has established a policy for the management of the 2024 Disaster Management Fund, which includes these contents, and will allocate KRW 55.7 billion this year to improve disaster-prone facilities in Gyeonggi Province and its cities and counties, an increase of KRW 37 billion from last year.

The Disaster Management Fund is a statutory fund that is set aside annually to cover the costs of all activities from disaster prevention to recovery under the Disaster Safety Act. This year, the statutory reserve for the Disaster Management Fund is KRW 131.6 billion, and the government plans to use KRW 340.7 billion based on the current budget, which will allow for stable fund management even if the targets for the Disaster Management Fund support are expanded, Gyeonggi Province explained.

Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province is promoting the “Climate Crisis Response Strategy Project,” which expands the use of the Disaster Management Fund that originally focused on disaster response and recovery to the entire disaster management process, including prevention and preparedness. Previously, the fund was mainly used for emergency response, recovery, and response exercises in the event of a disaster; however, from this year, the policy has shifted to focus on projects that prevent disasters. Currently, there are eight projects, including the installation of automatic entry barriers for underpasses and river barriers, and the plan is to complete the wind and water-related projects before the monsoon season.

This provincial fund has been used primarily for facilities managed by Gyeonggi Province, such as dredging local rivers and operating salt sprayers for local roads, but it will be expanded to include public facilities managed by city and county governments. This change aims to address the limitation of support being provided only to facilities managed by Gyeonggi Province, while facilities managed by city and county governments were subject to variations depending on financial conditions. Gyeonggi Province has a policy of creating a safe provincial environment by fully supporting funds even for facilities under the control of local governments, and plans to quickly support the installation of automatic salt sprayers on local government roads that are deemed vulnerable to snow after this winter.

The province has also established a disaster management fund and a disaster relief fund to be used for emergency measures in the event of sudden disasters. Gyeonggi Province has set aside KRW 21 billion of the total disaster management fund and KRW 20 billion of the disaster relief fund to be used in the event of disasters, completing a system that can provide funds immediately in emergency situations. In November last year and again in January this year, the province provided KRW 6.2 billion in emergency assistance for heavy snowfall and cold waves.

“In this era of climate crisis, we have completely changed the management policy paradigm of the Disaster Management Fund from the new year… We will protect the lives and property of Gyeonggi residents with the ‘Climate Crisis Response Strategy Project,’ which will allocate KRW 55.7 billion to eight projects,” said Oh Byung-kwon, First Vice Governor of Gyeonggi Province (and Chairman of the Disaster Management Fund Management Review Committee).