Osan City and Life Insurance Social Contribution Foundation Sign MOU

Osan City and the Life Insurance Social Contribution Foundation announced on the 20th that they have signed an MOU agreement at Seoul Plaza Hotel to establish Korea's best daycare facility through sincere cooperation based on mutual trust in early childhood care and education development.

The agreement signing ceremony was attended by Mayor of Osan City Kwak Sang-wook, Chairman Lee Si-hyung of the Life Insurance Social Contribution Foundation, Vice President Kwak Sang-yong of Samsung Life Insurance, Vice Chairman Park Jong-chan of the Korea Life Insurance Association, and other executives and officials. Under the agreement, Osan City will provide the necessary land for daycare facility construction, while the Life Insurance Social Contribution Foundation will directly build and donate the daycare facility to the city.

Osan City is the youngest city with an average age of 30.7 years and boasts the second-highest birth rate in Gyeonggi Province. Following its selection as a "Birth and Childcare Model City" by the Gyeonggi Province Governor last year, the city set a goal to establish a happy childcare environment for both parents and children, with the expansion of public daycare facilities as its top priority.

However, constructing a large-scale facility required a minimum cost of 2 billion won or more (excluding land acquisition, construction costs only), making it difficult for the city to build on its own given its strained finances.

In November last year, the city learned of a social contribution project led by the Life Insurance Social Contribution Foundation (Chairman Lee Si-hyung), through which the foundation would build and donate public daycare facilities for free if local governments provided land. Recognizing the urgent need to expand public facilities, Osan City selected and applied with Segyo 1 District as a candidate site and was ultimately selected in December last year, marking a major milestone.

Following the MOU signing, Osan City and the foundation plan to begin construction in May on a large-scale public daycare facility in Segyo 1 District with the city's largest capacity of 270 children (total floor area of 1,157 square meters), with completion targeted for October of this year.