Gwangju City Recruiting Participating Companies for the 2nd Village Enterprise Public Offering Project

Applications Open Until the 26th, Total of 7 Preliminary and Advanced Village Enterprises

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 12th that it is recruiting companies to participate in the ‘2021 Preliminary and Advancement (2nd phase) Village Enterprise Contest Project.’

Village enterprises are community-level companies that solve local problems and create income and jobs through profit-making businesses utilizing various local resources. This year, a total of seven companies will be recruited, divided into two types: preliminary village enterprises (5) and advanced village enterprises (2).

Applicants must be corporations (organizations) that meet the requirements for establishing a village enterprise, with at least five members investing, and more than 70% of investors and employees must be local residents.

Companies wishing to participate in the project must complete introductory and specialized training hosted by the social cooperative Sallim, a village enterprise support organization, before applying. Then, they can download the application form and required documents from the city’s website, fill them out, and submit them in person to the relevant district office department of the corporation’s location from the day of announcement until the 26th.

After the application deadline, preliminary village enterprises will be finally selected through on-site investigation, eligibility review, and the city’s first screening committee review. Advanced village enterprises will be recommended to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and will be finally selected through the Ministry’s review in June this year.

However, preliminary village enterprise designation will be automatically canceled if it exceeds two years after designation.

Selected village enterprises will receive project funds of 10 million KRW for preliminary and 20 million KRW for advanced enterprises, and will be able to participate in management consulting and various promotional events hosted by village enterprise support organizations in the future.

Currently, Gwangju has 66 village enterprises and 9 preliminary village enterprises designated. In September last year, the ‘Korea’s First Village Enterprise Win-Win Shop (#),’ a sales outlet for village enterprise products, was opened at Homeplus Gyerim Branch to expand sales channels for village enterprises.

Park Jeong-hwan, Director of the City’s Job and Economy Office, said, “In this difficult situation due to COVID-19, we will strive to support this project to revitalize the local social economy and help the independence and growth of enterprises.”