Gwangju City to 'Promote' This Year's Job Projects at an All-Time High Scale

Major Job Project Budget Increased by 193% Year-on-Year to 451.2 Billion Won

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 9th that it will promote job projects this year on the largest scale ever.

They will actively promote new future job projects such as the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) cluster and support projects for e-sports software developers, directly employ about 1,000 personnel for Gwangju Global Motors Co., Ltd. on an annual basis, and significantly expand job projects for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, middle-aged, and women. The budget for major job projects is planned to be 451.2 billion KRW, an increase of 217.5 billion KRW (193%) compared to last year.

Gwangju City will first actively promote future jobs to lead changes in the industrial ecosystem.

Based on the economic free zone preliminarily designated by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at the end of last year, about 400 billion KRW will be invested over the next five years to realize Gwangju as an AI-centered city by actively building core infrastructure such as AI research institutes and public big data centers.

This year, 62.6 billion KRW in national funds have been secured, and including city funds and private capital, a total investment of 100 billion KRW is planned.

The automobile plant of Gwangju Global Motors Co., Ltd., which began construction in December last year, will be completed by April next year. Regarding this, the required workforce will be directly employed annually, starting this year, through public recruitment of about 1,000 people.

The Labor-Management Co-Growth Support Center, which will serve as a base for Gwangju-type jobs with a scale of 45 billion KRW, will also undergo design and begin construction by the end of this year.

National funds related to new job projects have also been secured at the largest scale ever.

This year’s new job projects include national funds of 10.5 billion KRW for region-led youth job projects such as the Youth Tomorrow Internship Project, Design Talent Win-Win Job Project, and e-sports software developer support project, and 9.7 billion KRW in national funds for regionally tailored job projects to create sustainable jobs.

In addition, job projects for vulnerable groups such as the elderly have been significantly expanded.

Job projects for the elderly to ensure stable income and self-reliance support will receive 86.4 billion KRW, 1.4 billion KRW for the opening of the Bitgoeul 50+ Center for middle-aged people, 8.2 billion KRW for jobs for the disabled, 36.5 billion KRW for self-support work, 17.5 billion KRW for childcare teacher support at daycare centers, 15.1 billion KRW for customized elderly care services, and 13.3 billion KRW for child care services, actively supporting job projects for vulnerable groups.

In particular, to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts, the operation of the ‘Small Business Guardian’ and the issuance scale of the ‘Gwangju Win-Win Card’ will also be expanded. The Gwangju Win-Win Card, the nation’s first card-type local currency designed to circulate funds within the region to activate the local economy and create jobs without capital outflow, was issued last year at a scale of 86.3 billion KRW (180,000 cards), and this year it is planned to be issued at a scale of 300 billion KRW, 3.5 times that of last year.

Park Nam-eon, Director of the Gwangju City Job Economy Office, said, “Creating many good jobs again this year is an unwavering major goal of Gwangju city administration. We will discover new job projects unique to Gwangju and actively promote job projects by further expanding the scale of effective projects already in operation.”