The National Assembly on Thursday passed next year’s budget plan worth 656-point-six trillion won.

Rival camps passed the budget motion in a vote of 237 to nine with 13 abstentions in a plenary session of 259 members.

The passage came after rival political parties agreed to cut the budget by some 300 billion won from the government's original proposal.

It marked the second consecutive year parliament passed the government’s budget plan after cutting the initial motion. 

The passage came 19 days after the legal deadline. Thursday also marked the third straight time for parliament to fail to meet the deadline for passing the upcoming year’s budget motion. 

The plan earmarked 26-and-a-half trillion won for supporting research and development, or 600 billion won more than the government’s proposal. 

The 600 billion won will be spent on increasing research infrastructure, including addressing job insecurity, supporting the research of next generation and core technologies as well as acquiring the latest, high-performance research equipment. 

Also under the budget plan, 447-point-nine billion won will go toward the government's development plan for the reclaimed wetland of Saemangeum in North Jeolla Province, or 300 billion won more than the government’s proposal.

An additional 300 billion won will be spent on issuing local vouchers called Regional Love Gift Certificates.