Haenam-gun Opens Social Community Support Center

Support Including Customized On-Site Consulting Accelerates Social Enterprise Revitalization

[Haenam＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] The Haenam-gun Social Community Support Center, established to revitalize village communities and the social economy in Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do, officially opened on the 11th and has begun full-scale operations.

According to the county on the 12th, the center will build a foundational base for revitalizing village communities and the social economy, and provide on-site, close consulting support.

Additionally, it will be used to strengthen networks so that social economy entrepreneurs within the jurisdiction can use it as a hub space for exchanging information. It is operated directly by Haenam-gun, with four staff members including the secretary-general.

The support center is located on the 3rd floor of the former Jongno M School building in Haeri, Haenam-eup. The 1st and 2nd floors house a shared kitchen and shared office, as well as office spaces for the Haenam social economy network through the Youth Food Culture Creative Campus project, which is expected to facilitate smooth collaborative work.

At the opening ceremony, the shared kitchen for youth food service startups and a shared office space accommodating four tenants also opened.

Haenam-gun is promoting the fostering of social economy enterprises as a key agenda under the 7th elected administration’s goal of ‘One social economy enterprise per eup/myeon.’

To this end, this year the ordinance on fostering and supporting the social economy was revised, and efforts are accelerating to implement related policies such as operating Haenam-type social economy enterprises and supporting social finance.

The newly promoted Haenam-type social economy enterprise development designates social economy enterprises that commercialize the distinctive resources of each eup and myeon and fosters them as Haenam-type models.

Furthermore, social finance will be supported to stabilize the management of social economy enterprises. Social finance is a dedicated financial product for social economy enterprises where Haenam-gun deposits a guarantee fund with a credit guarantee institution, which then issues a guarantee certificate allowing enterprises to receive low-interest loans.

County Governor Myung Hyun-kwan stated, “As the scope of social economy activities expands, it is gaining attention as an alternative to solving local issues. We will expand support for social economy enterprises to establish a continuous growth engine and lower entry barriers so that it can become another pillar of economic revitalization in the county.”