Guri City Selected for 2026 Regional Commercial District Development Project

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Um In-yong] Guri City announced on the 18th that Guri Traditional Market was finally selected in the local theme commercial district category in the '2026 Regional Commercial District Development Project' competition overseen by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and will implement a project worth 4 billion won in total over two years from 2026 to 2027.

The local theme commercial district category of the Regional Commercial District Development Project involves developing content utilizing unique local resources such as regional cuisine, cultural heritage, and experiential activities to create specialized commercial districts for experience and consumption.

With this selection, Guri City plans to invest a total of 4 billion won—2 billion won in national funding and 2 billion won in municipal funding—to create a local theme commercial district reflecting regional characteristics centered on Guri Traditional Market, and to strengthen commercial district competitiveness and vitalize the local economy.

This achievement is being recognized as a result of Guri City, the Guri Commercial District Revitalization Foundation, and the Guri Traditional Market Merchants Association establishing a close public-private cooperation system to develop business plans and systematically prepare growth strategies for the regional commercial district.

Going forward, the city plans to discover various content linking Guri City's historical, cultural, and tourism resources with commercial districts over two years, and comprehensively pursue specialized product development and commercial district environment improvement to enhance the competitiveness of the traditional market and strengthen its self-sustaining foundation.

In particular, the city achieved additional success by having two alley-type shopping districts—Sintopyeong Food Street Alley-type Shopping District and Galmaei Eye & You Street Alley-type Shopping District—selected in the promising commercial district category in addition to the local theme commercial district category, establishing a foundation for regional commercial district development encompassing both traditional markets and alley commercial districts.

In the promising commercial district category, project funds of 500 million won each per district, totaling 1 billion won (500 million won in national funding and 500 million won in municipal funding), are scheduled to be invested by the end of 2026.

The city plans to promote specialized content discovery reflecting conditions and characteristics of each commercial district, joint marketing, enhancement of merchant organization capabilities, and commercial district environment improvement to increase the self-sustaining power and competitiveness of alley commercial districts.

Lee Young-hee, director of the city's Jobs and Economy Division, stated, "This selection in the competition project will be an opportunity to breathe new vitality into small business owners, traditional markets, and alley commercial districts that are facing difficulties due to economic downturn," and added, "We will continue to communicate and cooperate with the Guri Commercial District Revitalization Foundation, the Guri Traditional Market Merchants Association, and each alley-type shopping district merchants association to successfully establish differentiated commercial district content unique to Guri City."