Leading the Way in Purchasing Gwanak Sarang Gift Certificates to Boost Consumption and Economic Revitalization
All Departments Visit COVID-19 Affected Stores to Provide Practical Support for Sales Improvement
[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] All employees of Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) rolled up their sleeves to revitalize local consumption in order to help small business owners and self-employed individuals in the district who faced a livelihood cliff due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
On January 15, Gwanak-gu issued the first batch of the mobile local currency ‘Gwanak Love Gift Certificate,’ linked with Zero Pay, worth 10 billion KRW, which was completely sold out, and the additional issuance of 1.5 billion KRW on May 20 was also sold out early.
This was the result of multifaceted efforts by all Gwanak-gu employees to increase consumer benefits and the number of affiliated stores for the gift certificates and strengthen promotions to revive the local economy depressed by COVID-19 and help small business owners struggling with their livelihoods.
Gwanak-gu employees used welfare points to purchase approximately 337 million KRW worth of Gwanak Love Gift Certificates and about 243 million KRW worth of traditional market Onnuri Gift Certificates, quickly spending them in alley markets and traditional markets, contributing to actual sales improvement and consumption revitalization.
Most employees also personally purchased an additional approximately 100 million KRW worth of Gwanak Love Gift Certificates beyond their welfare points, pooling their efforts so that their prompt personal consumption could lead to rapid economic revitalization.
The district plans to issue an additional 3.5 billion KRW worth of Gwanak Love Gift Certificates by the end of June to continue this consumption activation momentum, and through the supplementary budget allocation in the second half of the year, aims to issue a total of 20 billion KRW for this year.
Moreover, since February, each department of the district office has expanded the ‘Market Day Visits’ program, which involves visiting traditional markets and alley stores in their respective districts to dine out and purchase goods, from once a month to twice a month, and also increased the ‘Employee Dining Day’ from twice a month to four times a month, steadily supporting the revitalization of the local commercial district.
Since March, over 1,500 employees have continuously visited restaurants and cafes that suffered business damage due to visits by COVID-19 confirmed cases during their lunch breaks.
The total number of visits reached 309, providing practical support by increasing sales by about 24 million KRW, sharing the difficulties of business owners, and working to improve the perception of these establishments as safe dining places.
Mayor Park Jun-hee purchased Gwanak Love Gift Certificates and Onnuri Gift Certificates with 30% of his salary returned over four months to overcome COVID-19, buying daily necessities at traditional markets and supporting about 336 low-income vulnerable households such as single-parent families, thus striving to protect vulnerable groups and revitalize the local economy.
Mayor Park said, “Thanks to the warm interest of employees and residents in overcoming the COVID-19 economic crisis, we achieved the great success of selling out a total of 11.5 billion KRW worth of Gwanak Love Gift Certificates,” and added, “We will continue various efforts with employees to activate local consumption, and we ask residents to consume promptly as much as possible to provide practical help to small business owners.”
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