Rep. Yu Eui-dong of the ruling Saenuri Party from  Pyeongtaek.

Rep. Yu leads the cheers during his parliamentary election campaign a few years ago.(Photos:Rep. Yu Eui-dong’s office)

Rep. Yu Eui-dong of the ruling Saenuri Party from Pyeongtaek-B District in Gyeonggi Province declared that he will continue to put all he has into expanding the farm infrastructure in the Pyeongtaek area by securing enough of a budget for the project to supply adequate water to farm land in the area suffering from not enough rain this year, resulting in a drought. 

In order to solve the worst situation for the farm area in the region, a project to repair and improve the water reservoirs in four areas won approval for implementation.

Rep. Yu announced on June 30 that 730 million won had been secured for the project to repair and improve the four reservoirs in Pyeongtaek, Kojan, Yongin, Yongdang, Yoncheon, Baekhak, Paju and Balrang in the four regions in Gyeonggi Province.

He said 290 million won had been allocated to the Pyeongtaek and Kojan reservoir, 120 million won to the reservoir in the Yongin, and Yongdang and 120 million won to each of the reservoirs in Paju, Balrang, Yoncheon and Baekhak.

The reservoir in the Pyeongtaek and Kojan area got the largest amount of money allocated, as its capacity to hold water has been reduced due to the accumulation of earth lowering the depth. Also, residents in the area submitted letters to the local administrative authority asking for the removal of those sands, to secure enough water for their farm land.

The allocation of 730 million won to those areas brought the total funds allocated for Gyeonggi Province to repair and improve reservoirs in the province to 35.2 billion won.

Rep. Yu said that when the project is completed, it will help resolve the problems for farm land in the province, especially farm households in the Pyeongtaek area. He said he will do what he can to expand the basic farm facilities in the area by securing enough funds for the project.

Rep. Yu, in the meantime, initiated a move to legislate the Exclusive Van for Small Commercial People Law to reform the current Van market. It’s been a serious problem for small commercial entities to the extent that they have been avoiding using credit cards to pay for something because they’re afraid of excessive fees charged for member stores.

Van companies have been known to have caused disorder in the market by charging too much in fees on credit cards they accept for payment of goods and services, while paying rebates to large member firms, and at the same time, helping credit card companies in their operations, including sales of their cards and securing new member stores.

In summary, small member stores have been paying excessive fees and the need for the correction of the problem have been raised on many occasions by setting up an exclusive Van for small member stores.

Rep. Yu, a member of the Political Committee of the National Assembly, called for reform of the Credit Professional Financial Law to allow the nomination of the optional service carriers by the Finance Committee.

When this law is legislated, some 608.6 billion won in funds to pay rebates to large member firms would be saved annually, with the fee for member stores cut by 0.3 percent.

Yu believes that Van market reform is needed to reduce the rebates paid to large member firms, and outflows of the information on small business people. The excessive fees paid by small business stores should be reduced through the legislation of the law to allow the exclusive Van market for small commercial entities, and at the same time, protect the rights of small commercial store members. Rep. Yu said he would do his best to reform the current Van market to protect the small commercial people as outlined above.