Cash subsidies offered to singles who date, marry in Busan's Saha-gu

Busan’s Saha-gu is preparing a meeting event and support program to provide direct cash subsidies to local residents and workers in the district to start dating and get married.

The Saha-gu district council passed a revised supplementary budget to fund the meeting day for local singles, a pilot project for which will take place in October, according to local media reports on Wednesday.

The pilot project will select eligible singles born between 1981 and 2001 who either live or work in the district. Applicants will be evaluated by the district office after submitting documents and going through an interview.

For each match formed through the event, the district will offer 500,000 won ($360) to each member of the prospective couple.

The local government will then provide more subsidies to the couple as it passes successive dating and marriage milestones.

It will give each individual in the couple 1 million won if they are able to get their families to meet in preparation for marriage.

Then if the couple ties the knot, Saha-gu will provide 20 million won in congratulatory money.

The district office will even offer the newlyweds a 30 million won deposit for housing or 800,000 won in monthly rent for up to five years.

The total amount of funding provided for each couple that successfully matches and marries through the program ranges from 53 million won to 71 million won.

The district in Busan's southwest plans to expand the program also to include foreign nationals residing or working in the district from next year, while hosting the meeting event once a month.

"This project is designed to overcome the demographic crisis amid South Korea's low birth rate by forming a multicultural local community in the future," Saha-gu district head Lee Gap-jun told local media, Wednesday.