Wonju Mayor Gu Ja-yeol makes all-out push to secure central government funding, visits National Assembly in final stretch of budget review

【Financial News, Wonju = Reporter Kim Gi-seop】As the National Assembly’s review of next year’s budget bill got underway in earnest, Wonju Mayor Gu Ja-yeol visited the National Assembly in person to request central government funding for long-awaited local projects, including the Yeoju-Wonju Double-Track Railway.
According to Wonju-si on the 4th, Mayor Gu visited the offices of National Assembly members Song Ki-heon, Park Jeong-ha and Heo Young in succession that day, seeking bipartisan cooperation to ensure key pending projects are included in next year’s government budget.
The two projects Mayor Gu focused on explaining that day were construction of the Yeoju-Wonju Double-Track Railway, the region’s biggest long-awaited project, and the Wonju Stream flood disaster prevention project, which is directly linked to residents’ safety and living conditions. Emphasizing the urgency of both projects and the need to increase central government funding, Mayor Gu asked lawmakers to work to restore budget allocations that had been reduced or omitted during the review by the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts.
The city had previously pursued efforts to secure budget allocations by traveling between central government agencies and the National Assembly, including successive meetings in September with Hwang Soon-kwan, head of the National Treasury Bureau at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and in October with Lee Kwang-jae, chair of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts. The city plans to use this visit to further strengthen cooperation with lawmakers and continue its efforts until the budget bill is finally passed.
Mayor Gu Ja-yeol said, “Now that the Budget and Accounts Committee’s review is getting underway in earnest, this is an important time to restore budget allocations that have been reduced or omitted,” adding, “We will make sure to protect funding for projects that directly affect residents’ lives, such as the Yeoju-Wonju Double-Track Railway and flood prevention on Wonju Stream, by working with the government and the National Assembly until just before the Assembly’s vote.”

[email protected] Kim Gi-seop Reporter