Jeonbuk Province Designates 10 Preliminary Social Enterprises

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Jeonbuk Province designated 10 preliminary social enterprises for the first half of 2020 on the 31st and announced the results of the 1st social enterprise financial support project contest.

Among the 23 companies that applied for preliminary social enterprises, 10 companies were finally selected by evaluating the realization of social objectives, business sustainability, the social entrepreneur mindset of the representative, and the possibility of entering certified social enterprises in the future.

In addition, financial support projects for social enterprises such as job creation (wage support), business development expenses, and infrastructure support comprehensively evaluated the sustainability of the business, employment retention of participating workers, realization of social value, necessity of support, and feasibility and validity of the application content.

In this 1st social enterprise job creation (wage) support, only 49 people, accounting for 55.7% of the applicants, were assigned due to insufficient application requirements, but most companies are expected to apply for the 2nd job creation support contest to be held next month.

In the case of business development expenses, to overcome the business deterioration caused by COVID-19 and maintain continuous employment of workers, the entire 840 million KRW budget for 2020 was supported in this evaluation. Among them, 9 social enterprises in the performance and arts sector, which suffered significant damage due to the suspension of performances in the first half of the year caused by COVID-19, were supported at 61.1% of the requested amount.

Song Geum-hyun, head of the Social Economy Division of Jeonbuk Province, said, “In addition to this financial support project, to help social enterprises overcome COVID-19, additional support within a 20% range is provided through regional autonomous job creation projects. Various policies such as advance payment of wage support, exemption from disadvantages caused by leave or wage arrears, and 90% support for suspension allowances are being promoted.”