The 25th World Scout Jamboree (Saemangeum Jamboree), which was held in Saemangeum, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do from the 1st, will end on the 12th after twists and turns. It has been 7 years since the event was hosted in 2016, but due to inadequate heat wave measures at the beginning of the event, heat-related patients continued to appear one after another and poor amenities caused inconvenience and lameness to the participants. As soon as the tournament is over, the government is expected to launch an intense inspection of Jeonbuk Province, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Organizing Committee.
Some pointed out that the Saemangeum Jamboree was compared to the case of Japan, which successfully led the event eight years ago with the same condition of reclaimed land. In 2015, Japan held an event in Yamaguchi Prefecture with a budget of 39.6 billion won, about a third of Saemangeum (117.1 billion won). Even considering the fact that the number of participants at the Japanese event (Yamaguchi Jamboree) was 25.3% lower than at the Saemangeum Jamboree, the amount of money spent makes a big difference.
Government subsidy, Korea 14 times that of Japan
Chosun Biz confirmed the settlement details of the ’23rd World Scout Jamboree Accounting Report’ released by the Japan Scout Federation, and as a result, Japan accounted for 3.53 billion yen (approx. 30 million won) was covered by participant registration fees, donations/sponsorships, advertisements, etc., and only 12.7%, or 530 million yen (approximately 5.02 billion won), received government support. On the other hand, the Saemangeum Jamboree received 72.2 billion won (61.7%) of the total project cost of 117.1 billion won from the government and Jeonbuk Province, and only 39.9 billion won (34.1%) was raised by itself. There is a 14-fold difference in the scale of national money input between Korea and Japan.
Comparing the accounting data of the two events, facilities-related expenses were the highest in both Korea and Japan. Jeonbuk-do, Buan-gun, and the organizing committee invested 43.1 billion won in building the facilities, and adding 1.25 billion won to facilities and environment-related expenses among the organizing committee’s general project expenses, a total of 44.35 billion won (37.9%) was invested in facility-related expenses. The Yamaguchi Jamboree also spent 863 million yen (approximately 8.18 billion won), 20.7% of the total expenditure, on facilities such as site management facilities and additional facilities for delegations. The Saemangeum Jamboree cost nearly five times as much facility cost as the Yamaguchi Jamboree.
The reason why the Saemangeum Jamboree requires a lot of facility investment costs and the budget proportion is larger than the Yamaguchi Jamboree is because of the specificity of the Saemangeum site. The Saemangeum seawall was completed in 2010, and reclamation projects are still underway. The site for the Jamboree event is registered as agricultural land, but in an attempt to host a large-scale event in a field with a short development history토토사이트, it was necessary to establish new infrastructure such as water supply and sewerage facilities and parking lots as well as the large assembly hall and campsite necessary for accommodation.
On the other hand, in the case of Japan, there was already a wastewater treatment facility near the Yamaguchi Jamboree site, so it was possible to save costs by making the most of the existing infrastructure, such as refurbishing it for the main event or using part of the large parking lot at the entrance of the venue as a container storage yard.
Other than that, the proportion of operating and personnel costs and PR costs in the total budget was similar for the events of the two countries. For the Saemangeum Jamboree, a budget of 33.16 billion won (28.3%) was allocated for various operation and labor costs. ▲Organizing Committee personnel expenses 5.5 billion won ▲Organizing Committee operating expenses 2.9 billion won ▲Operating expenses required for other events are 24.76 billion won. For the Yamaguchi Jamboree, 1.08 billion yen (approximately 10.24 billion won , 24.2 %) covered labor costs and the cost of programs inside and outside the camp. In relation to PR and marketing, 4.5 billion won (3.8%) was invested in the Saemangeum Jamboree and 100 million yen (approximately 950 million won, 2.45 %) was invested in the Yamaguchi Jamboree.
The Yamaguchi Jamboree was organized with about one-third of the budget for the Saemangeum Jamboree, but the event was successfully completed. As a result of a satisfaction survey conducted by the International Scout Federation on Yamaguchi Jamboree participants, 97.7% of the participants responded that they were satisfied with the event. Previously, in July 2013, the Japanese authorities held the Asia-Pacific Jamboree, a pre-event, to identify problems with heat and facility areas, and took action at the event to increase satisfaction. In addition, the fact that the equipment prepared at the Asia-Pacific Jamboree was also used for the Yamaguchi Jamboree is considered a factor that saved the budget.