Photo : YONHAP News
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced plans to inject six-point-seven trillion won, or around four-point-eight billion U.S. dollars, in the next two years toward 87 projects aimed at facilitating efforts to tackle the nation’s low births.
According to the plans announced on Tuesday, the city government intends to nearly double the related budget for 2025 and 2026 to expand existing childbirth and rearing projects to also support families with housing as well as to help achieve balance between work and personal life.
The city will provide up to one million won for couples preparing for a wedding and life as newlyweds, with more than 20-thousand households expected to be eligible in 2025.
An online shopping platform is set to open next March, offering necessary items for babies at up to half the market price.
The city government plans to expand the number of daycare centers on an hourly basis and facilities to look after elementary school children before school opens in the morning to operate in all 25 districts.
The city will offer one-thousand housing units this year to newlyweds that do not own a home, with the number set to rise to three-thousand-500 a year in 2025 and four-thousand a year in 2026. Starting next January, couples starting a family with a newborn that do not own a home will be eligible for a monthly housing subsidy of 300-thousand won for two years.