[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kang Sharon] Gyeongnam Province announced on the 20th that two locations, Jinju City and Gimhae City, were simultaneously selected as sites for the 'Social Enterprise Growth Support Center' (Social Campus On), an infrastructure space supporting the startup and stable growth of social enterprises.
The Social Enterprise Growth Support Center project is a program supported entirely by national funds, including construction and operation costs, by the Ministry of Employment and Labor selecting optimal sites recommended by local governments and the private sector to support social enterprises.
The growth support center sites in the province are a 408㎡ prosecutor's office on the former court site in Sangdae-dong, Jinju City, and a 660㎡ private building near the city hall in Buwon-dong, Gimhae City.
Jinju and Gimhae, central cities in western and eastern Gyeongnam, have a high proportion of young population, and the province expects that the center will provide new jobs to young people interested in social economy enterprises.
Additionally, the center will serve as a regional hub space for a social economy enterprise network where youth and social economy enterprises can grow together, providing residency space, education, and mentoring to help about 70 early-stage social enterprises in the province grow stably.
The province stated that the Ministry of Employment and Labor initially planned to establish 10 centers nationwide over three years from 2017 to 2019.
However, by continuously requesting additional establishments to the Ministry, the province added that this time, for the first time nationwide, two centers were selected simultaneously.
Jang Jaehyuk, head of the Gyeongnam Social Economy Promotion Team, said, "In consultation with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, we plan to complete the lease contracts and space design by June and start remodeling construction from July. We will recruit resident companies in September to October and open the Growth Support Center around November, aiming to establish it as a human and material hub for Gyeongnam's social economy along with the Social Economy Innovation Town being developed in Changwon."
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