The scale of the citizen participation budget, which incorporates projects proposed directly by the public into the government budget for the following year, has significantly expanded. With a focus on practical initiatives such as AI vouchers for vulnerable groups and free legal consultation calls, the budget request for next year has surpassed 380 billion won.
On June 16, the Planning and Budget Office announced that a total of 43 projects across 16 ministries have been proposed for the 2027 fiscal year, amounting to a budget request of 381.3 billion won. The number of projects has increased 2.9 times compared to last year, while the budget request has surged 12.8 times.
The citizen participation budget program, which was introduced in 2018, allows the government to review and incorporate projects suggested by citizens into the budget. This year, the scope of citizen proposals has been expanded to include new projects and expenditure efficiency, and the size of the citizen participation group has been increased from 300 to 600 members.
A total of 1,080 citizen proposals were submitted this year, nearly double the number from last year. Among these, 866 proposals were for new projects, while 214 proposals for expenditure efficiency were received, marking their first full implementation this year.
Key projects include the Ministry of Science and ICT's initiative to provide specialized AI service vouchers for vulnerable groups. This program aims to support subscription fees for AI services to bridge the digital divide in the AI era. The Ministry of Justice is also working to enhance legal accessibility for vulnerable groups by making calls to the Korea Legal Aid Corporation's 132 legal consultation hotline free of charge.
Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has proposed a project to improve distribution structures through direct sales of livestock products, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance has included a project to utilize idle government properties, such as closed police boxes, to create community hubs.
Numerous budget-saving proposals have also been identified from citizen suggestions. One proposal from an active-duty officer suggests adjusting military supply items based on preferences of MZ generation soldiers, which could save approximately 28 billion won by reducing underutilized items and reallocating those funds to enhance combat readiness. Another suggestion aims to improve budget efficiency by reducing redundancy in the production of public sector promotional videos.
The government plans to comprehensively consider the preferences of the citizen participation group's voting results and policy conditions before finalizing the budget for the 2027 fiscal year.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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