Gwangju City Designates Special Week for Small Business Owners Starting from the 8th

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "Providing 'Selective and Focused' Support and Measures for More Vulnerable Groups"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 4th that it will operate a ‘Special Week for Overcoming COVID-19’ to listen to opinions from various sectors of people’s livelihoods struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare countermeasures.

Starting from the 8th, the city will continuously conduct the program by discovering various fields such as small business owners in alley markets who are experiencing the greatest difficulties due to COVID-19, culture, tourism, sports, small and medium enterprises, women and childcare, youth, elderly, transportation, construction, and people with disabilities.

Since the local outbreak of COVID-19 last year, Gwangju has faced six crises, and city administration had no choice but to focus on infectious disease response. However, moving forward, while maintaining a thorough quarantine system, the city plans to focus on ‘quarantine and livelihood recovery’ to revive the local economy from the shock of COVID-19.

First, through the special week, the city will check whether the livelihood stabilization measures implemented so far are effective in the respective fields and will intensively promote related policies linked to the special week.

In particular, the city plans to focus on listening to the difficulties of sectors exhausted by COVID-19 to eliminate blind spots in livelihood support.

To hear voices from the field without distortion, small-scale on-site meetings will be held, and a wide range of citizens will be met through non-face-to-face video interviews.

Opinions proposed in each field will be actively reflected in livelihood stabilization measures, and regarding the currently discussed 4th government disaster relief fund, active proposals will also be made to the National Assembly.

The first special week will be for small business owners and will last for one week starting from the 8th.

Gwangju will ▲communicate with organizations related to small business owners, self-employed, alley markets, and traditional markets such as the Small Business Association and Merchants Association to listen to difficulties and prepare countermeasures. ▲Review and improve the operation status of the Gwangju Win-Win Card and link it to the public delivery app to be piloted in April.

Additionally, ▲inspect the actual conditions of the 3 No’s (no collateral, no interest, no guarantee) livelihood stabilization measures and prepare supplementary measures. ▲Conduct a city-wide flower purchasing campaign to support flower farms, ▲promote communication meetings with operators of general restaurants, PC rooms, karaoke rooms, and arcades facing difficulties, and ▲encourage alley market revitalization conducted by public institutions under the city.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “This Special Week for Overcoming the COVID-19 Crisis is for ‘selection and concentration’ support for vulnerable groups and sectors that are particularly struggling due to COVID-19,” and added, “If individuals or organizations experiencing difficulties due to COVID-19 wish to receive city support or participate in meetings, please contact the Policy Planning Office, and we will do our best to prepare countermeasures.”