Gyeonggi Province Establishes Foundation for Sustainable and Stable Revenue Structure of Social Economy Enterprises

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 10th that it will conduct a second public recruitment from May 11 to 25 for preliminary social economy enterprises, certified social enterprises, cooperatives, and community enterprises throughout the province to participate in the "2020 Second Social Economy Enterprise Financial Support Project."

The province provided labor costs for 298 employees to 125 enterprises and business development funds of 2.5 billion won to 118 enterprises through the first public recruitment conducted from January to March.

The current public recruitment is aimed at supporting the establishment of a foundation for sustainable and stable revenue structures for social economy enterprises and will be conducted across two sectors: the "Job Creation Project" and the "Business Development Fund Support Project."

In the "Job Creation Project" sector, (preliminary) social enterprises that realize social values will be supported with labor costs at the minimum wage level and a portion of social insurance premiums (up to 9.955%) for newly hired workers.
Labor costs will be supported for one year from the support start date, and up to 50 employees per enterprise can apply for labor cost support. Labor costs are supported at a minimum of 30% to a maximum of 60% for certified social enterprises certified or designated before 2018, depending on the support year, while preliminary social enterprises receive 30% to 70% support depending on the year.
However, for certified social enterprises certified or designated from 2019 onwards, 40% support applies, and for preliminary social enterprises, 50% support applies uniformly regardless of the support year for hired workers.
In addition, an additional support incentive of 20% each can be provided when hiring workers from vulnerable groups and when maintaining employment periods of 24 months or more. However, even if multiple additional support requirements are met, the support rate cannot exceed 90%.

The "Business Development Fund Support Sector" is a project that supports preliminary social enterprises, certified social enterprises, social cooperatives, community enterprises, and self-reliance enterprises with business funds needed for brand and technology development, marketing, and other activities to establish sustainable and stable revenue structures.
Certified social enterprises can receive support of up to 100 million won, while preliminary social enterprises, social cooperatives, community enterprises, and self-reliance enterprises can receive up to 50 million won. The self-funded ratio is applied on a differentiated basis from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 30% depending on the number of times business funds have been received.

Enterprises wishing to apply for the public recruitment should submit applications and supporting documents through the "Social Enterprise Integrated Information System (http://www.seis.or.kr)."

A Gyeonggi Province official stated, "Participating enterprises will be selected through document review, on-site inspection (by city and county), and review by the evaluation committee, and the results will be disclosed on the Gyeonggi Province website in July, with individual notification also conducted through the relevant city and county offices."