Korea Forest Service Designates 14 'Forest-Type' Preliminary Social Enterprises

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service announced on the 29th that it has newly designated 14 companies as the '1st Forest-type Preliminary Social Enterprises' of this year.

The designated companies include 3 social service provision types, 6 job provision types, and 2 mixed types. The designation period is three years from the date of designation, during which each company will provide forest services to vulnerable groups or contribute to the employment of vulnerable groups and the income improvement of local residents.

Forest-type preliminary social enterprises receive support from the Korea Forest Service (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute) through capacity-building education, market development, management consulting, and other 'growth support projects,' as well as financial support such as labor costs and business development expenses from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (local governments).

The Korea Forest Service designated 57 companies in 2019 and 40 companies last year as forest-type preliminary social enterprises, respectively.

Kim Jong-geun, head of the Forest Job Startup Team at the Korea Forest Service, said, "The Korea Forest Service plans to discover additional forest-type preliminary social enterprises twice this year," adding, "Along with the designation of preliminary social enterprises, we will actively support each company to continuously expand employment in the private forest sector and provide forest services to vulnerable groups."