Daejeon City's youth policies fail one after another... Controversy over effectiveness

(Daejeon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Joo-young = Daejeon City, the 9th popularly elected city, has introduced various youth support policies with the vision of 'Daejeon, a special youth city', but as projects have been canceled one after another, controversy over their effectiveness has arisen.

According to Daejeon City on the 24th, the city's Youth Policy Department reported at a recent briefing session on reviewing pledges hosted by the Planning and Coordination Office that it would not reflect the 'Daejeon-type youth basic income' in next year's main budget. As a pledge project during his time as a candidate, Mayor Heo Tae-jeong proposed a plan to pay Daejeon-type youth basic income of 1 million won per year through Ontong Daejeon, a local currency.

The city announced that, as a result of its own review, it judged that it would be difficult to pursue the project in a financial crisis, as it was expected to cost 20 billion won per year just for those aged 29.

The head of the city's youth support team explained to Yonhap News, "The effectiveness of the policy compared to the financial investment is questionable, and an astronomical amount of budget is expected to be spent depending on how the age group is determined. There are also policy equity issues, such as controversy over age differences, so it was classified as a sunset project."

The city previously decided to reduce the marriage incentive support project for young couples due to the financial crisis. Starting next year, the amount of marriage incentives per household will be reduced from 5 million won (2.5 million won per person) to 3 million won.

It is unclear whether or not the Norspec 'Youth Special Advisor' open recruitment project, which the city promoted for the first time in the country, will be re-opened.

Last month, the city held a public offering for a youth special advisor with a local government level 5 position and annual salary worth 70 million won, with the intention of responding to the increasing demand for youth policy and reflecting the diverse opinions of young people in city administration, but the recruitment was canceled due to lack of suitable candidates.

As many as 47 people participated in the contest, which was held without restrictions on educational background and experience, and 5 people were selected through the document screening, but it was judged that they did not meet the evaluation standards in the second interview using the policy proposal presentation (presentation) method, and it was eventually announced as 'no successful candidates'.

The head of the city's youth policy team said, "Normally, a graduation certificate and career certificate are attached, and the relevant experience is limited to a few years or more. This is the first time in history that the recruitment process was conducted using the Nospec method, so there were many people who applied, but I heard that external judges had difficulty in screening because no one suggested specifically how to implement youth policy."

He added, “We are considering various options, such as whether to re-open the public offering or select candidates again with certain qualification requirements.”

Instead, the city decided to promote the '1st Daejeon Youth Council', comprised of 100 youth councilors, as a core youth policy project. We have a plan to create youth-centered governance that takes the lead from youth policy establishment to implementation and evaluation.

However, in 2018 and 2019, Daejeon City and the city council already operated a youth council to propose youth policies, so some point out that this is nothing new. It is questionable whether the proposals of young people with no real authority can be implemented.

In response to this, the head of the youth policy team emphasized, "Going beyond the level of young people simply suggesting policies, youth participatory budgeting will allow young people to play a leading role in directly designing and inspecting the budget," and added, "We will operate it as a permanent organization, not a one-time participation event, and capture the voices of young people."