South Korean citizens have proposed nearly one-thousand-400 projects as a way of efficiently spending part of the government’s budget for next year.  

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Wednesday, a total of one-thousand-399 proposals were submitted for public participatory budget projects for 2020, representing a 16 percent increase from last year’s submissions. 

The ministry said many of the project ideas were related to public welfare like last year with a significant portion of them seeking to address fine dust issues. 

Related government ministries will examine the eligibility of the proposals by next month before handing them over to the finance ministry with their estimation of necessary budgets. 

Four-hundred citizens will be randomly selected in June to help choose the best proposals, then the government will finalize budget plans for them. 

Last year, 38 projects proposed by citizens were selected with a total of 92-point-eight billion won of the national budget earmarked for them.