An exterior view of the Yeongyang-gun office building. (Yeongyang-gun)
An exterior view of the Yeongyang-gun office building. (Yeongyang-gun)

Yeongyang-gun in North Gyeongsang Province said Wednesday that it has enacted the "Basic Ordinance for the Realization of a Basic Society in Yeongyang-gun," becoming the first local government in the province to pass such a measure through its county council.

The new ordinance lays the institutional groundwork for linking policies closely tied to residents' basic lives — including income, lifestyle and medical care — under a single framework called "basic society." It also establishes a system for continuously identifying and pursuing new policies tailored to local conditions.

Its core aim is to connect policies affecting residents' basic livelihoods, such as income, lifestyle support and medical care, while continuously developing measures suited to the region.

Building on the rural basic income program piloted this year, the county plans to push ahead with introducing a "lifetime pension for all residents." The pension would be funded by revenue from energy projects, such as wind and pumped-storage power generation.

The county also plans to keep developing new region-specific programs in areas directly related to residents' basic lives. These include a rapid-response team for everyday civil complaints, health consultation rooms in remote villages, and support for residents' health checkup costs.

"A basic society is not some grandiose slogan — it means making sure every resident can enjoy, in daily life, the rights they are entitled to, without being inconvenienced or left out simply because of where they live," said Oh Do-chang, the Yeongyang-gun chief. "We will review the projects we have carried out so far and fill in the gaps one by one."


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