Gyeonggi Province Supports 14.35 Billion Won for 'Social Economy Regional Specialized Projects' in 26 Cities and Counties

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Nohun] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 17th that through the selection review of the '2021 Social Economy Regional Specialized Projects,' it has selected 28 projects from 26 cities and counties and will provide a total of 1.435 billion won in support.

The 'Regional Specialized Projects' are projects directly executed by cities and counties for discovering and fostering social economy enterprise models reflecting regional characteristics, raising awareness, and opening new sales channels.

Regarding the projects that cities and counties applied for, the Provincial Review Committee made final selections by reflecting the appropriateness of project plans and the requested amounts.

Examining major projects, Bucheon City will introduce the 'Neighborhood Care Social Enterprise Fostering Project,' which presents solutions to elementary childcare-related social issues through neighborhood-integrated care services involving social enterprises and the local community, as well as the 'Co-living Platform co-LAB@Bucheon City Project,' where diverse actors including private entities, government, industry, academia, and residents participate, discover local agendas through a living lab (user-driven innovation platform) method, and residents solve issues themselves.

Yongin City will operate the 'Social Economy Online Publicity Reporter Group,' a resident-participation-type project where citizens interested in the social economy field take the lead in producing and sharing social economy online promotional content to increase awareness of the social economy.

Namyangju City will operate the 'Social Impact Bond (SIB) Linked Model Discovery' project. The Social Impact Bond is a private investment project in which private companies invest funds in public projects, and when project goals are achieved, the government 'purchases' by providing project funds and performance bonuses. In developed countries, it is utilized to solve various social and welfare problems.

In addition, Gwangju City will pursue 'Social Heroes City, Broad City Gwangju,' and Yangju City will pursue 'Social Economy Enterprise Collaboration Model Development' as their respective city and county specialized projects.

Gwak Seonmi, Director of the Social Economy Division of Gyeonggi Province, said, "Regional specialized projects serve as a primer for revitalizing local economies and social economies. This year as well, through diverse projects reflecting the characteristics of each city and county, we will do our best to reduce regional disparities and discover and foster social economy enterprise models specialized for each region."