Busan, Daegu, Jeju, and 14 Public and Private Institutions Host 'Failure Expo'

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Signs Online Public-Private Partnership Agreement to Nationwide Spread of Rechallenge Culture

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Three local governments including Busan, Daegu, and Jeju, along with 14 public and private institutions such as the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Women Startup Forum, and Youth Ddeutrak5959, are coming together to prepare the ‘2021 Failure Expo.’

On the 22nd, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that on the 23rd, it will hold an online business agreement ceremony with 17 participating organizations to promote a nationwide change in perception of failure and to spread a culture of retrying. In February, the Ministry held an online briefing session to select participating organizations for the ‘2021 Failure Expo’ and, through demand surveys and review procedures, selected three local governments and 14 public and private institutions.

The Failure Expo is a public participation program aimed at turning experiences of failure into social assets and spreading an atmosphere of support and encouragement. It began in 2018 and is now in its fourth year. Since last year, it has shifted to a year-round operation method, selecting participating organizations based on field demand, and supporting regional expos led by local governments and public/private institutions as well as autonomous planning programs.

This year’s regional expos will be held in three local governments: Busan, Daegu, and Jeju. Each region plans to operate specialized programs centered on regional promotion committees to support citizens’ recovery and retries. The 14 public and private institutions will operate autonomous planning programs by target and field, running various programs year-round to turn failure experiences into assets and support retries.

The online agreement ceremony for the ‘2021 Failure Expo’ will be conducted through non-face-to-face electronic signatures using a system applied with blockchain technology in line with the digital age. Along with the agreement ceremony, a non-face-to-face workshop will be held using a video conferencing platform, involving representatives from the 17 participating organizations and the private planning group. This workshop is a place to share the projects of participating organizations and to form a network for mutual cooperation to promote the ‘2021 Failure Expo.’

Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to hold a proclamation ceremony for the ‘2021 Failure Expo’ at the end of May and will guide various programs held both online and offline so that anyone can freely participate in the Failure Expo anytime and anywhere.

Lee Jae-young, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “Despite the crisis situation of COVID-19 last year, we had a meaningful time comforting each other and encouraging retries through public-private cooperation and social solidarity,” adding, “We will strengthen collaboration with the 17 participating organizations this time and expand the public-private cooperation network supporting retries to continuously support and cheer on the public’s retries.”