Yongsan-gu, Recruiting New Resident Companies for Youth Startup Support Center

[Seoul District News] Yongsan-gu Accepts Move-in Approval Applications and Business Plans via Email by October 3 & Recruiting 4 Teams Including Representative Age 20-39 Preliminary Startup Teams and Early-Stage Startups (Within 3 Years) for Final Selection in November ... Nowon-gu Opens Youth Hub Space Enter Ajit ... Seocho-gu Installs 'Snow-Melting Road Heating Cables' ... Dongjak-gu Installs 'Automatic Road Heating Cables' at 5 Locations

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yongsan-gu (Mayor Park Hee-young) is publicly recruiting new tenant companies for the Yongsan Youth Startup Support Center (17, Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu).

This is to discover startup talents with excellent ideas and foster capable young startup companies.

The target tenants are young prospective startup teams whose representatives are aged 20 to 39 as of the recruitment date, and early-stage startup companies within three years of establishment.

Applicants can submit the application form for tenancy approval, business plan, and related documents via email to the person in charge. The recruitment period is until October 3. However, applications may be restricted if the applicant is currently closed or subject to debt default regulations from financial institutions.

The district will select tenant companies through a first-round document review, second-round presentation evaluation, and third-round operations committee deliberation, and plans to announce the results in early November.

A total of four teams (two teams for 2-person rooms and two teams for 4-person rooms) will be recruited, with a tenancy period of one year from the contract signing date. Tenancy can be extended up to three years through annual renewal evaluations.

Applicants can choose their preferred room type between 2-person and 4-person rooms. Duplicate applications or mid-term changes are not allowed.

Support includes ▲startup space ▲startup incubation programs (mentoring, networking, investment attraction IR, etc.) ▲management fees and other incidental costs (excluding security deposits and annual rent).

In October 2020, the district opened the Youth Startup Support Center within the Yongsan Central Park Harrington Square complex facility for residents' convenience and is jointly operated with Sookmyung Women's University Campus Town Project Group. The center consists of startup incubation spaces (10 two-person rooms and 7 four-person rooms), small meeting rooms, an operations office, training rooms, and community spaces.

Mayor Park Hee-young of Yongsan-gu said, “We will actively support not only startup assistance but also help young people, who are the nation's competitive power, to confidently realize their dreams here in Yongsan.”

Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) has opened a youth hub space called ‘Enter Ajit’ in Wolgye-dong.

Within a 300m radius of the Ajit location, there are many schools including Seongok Elementary, Kwangwoon Elementary, Namdaemun Middle, Kwangwoon Middle, and Kwangwoon AI High School. There are about 3,000 students passing through, and although there are two youth-only spaces nearby, they are inconvenient to access by public transportation.

‘Enter Ajit,’ located within a 10-minute walk from home or school, is about 118.8㎡ in size and consists of ▲future technology experience spaces such as robotics, VR, digital drawing, and AR ▲youth autonomous activity spaces for relaxation such as board games and console games ▲study spaces for education such as coding ▲and counseling rooms where youth can share their concerns.

Various future technology learning lectures such as step-by-step coding and digital drawing are offered, along with customized special lectures including coding practice using LEGO.

The center also takes responsibility for youth mental health. Professional counselors provide career counseling through career tests and analysis, and offer counseling therapy programs.

The strength of Enter Ajit lies in its professional operation. Kwangwoon University, entrusted with its operation, also manages the ‘Seoul Nowon Youth Future Career Center End’ located in Hagye-dong, enabling the sharing of content and curriculum for diverse projects. University students will be dispatched to the Ajit to pass on their experiences to the youth. The center operates from Tuesday to Saturday (closed on Mondays and Sundays) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The district recognized the need for youth-only spaces where students stressed from studies can rest and freely pursue their dreams, and has been creating and operating youth Ajits since 2020.

Currently, the district operates seven youth Ajits including Enter Ajit: ▲Kkumkkuneun (Wolgye 3-dong) ▲Kkeullim (Sanggye 6,7-dong) ▲Meetup Center (Wolgye 2-dong) ▲Arcade (Junggye 2,3-dong) ▲Hakuna Matata (Sanggye 3,4-dong) ▲Chaoreum (Junggye 4-dong). These range from cozy 74㎡ spaces to large 612㎡ spaces equipped with facilities such as one-person media rooms, band practice rooms, dance studios, mini theaters, coin karaoke, powder rooms (vanity tables), book cafes, and PC zones.

Programs are also diverse, including career challenge programs, beginner bicycle classes, school youth project-linked activities for school violence and cyberbullying prevention, and craft and cooking programs. From May to August, after the COVID-19 private gathering restrictions were lifted, over 29,000 youth visited the six Ajits.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, “Currently, more than 80,000 youths reside in Nowon-gu. There is still a shortage of spaces within a 10-minute walk from home where youth can rest and engage in healthy activities. We will continue to strive to secure spaces for youth.”

Due to recent climate change causing frequent abnormal weather such as record-breaking heavy snow and cold waves, Seocho-gu is proactively preparing for natural disasters in winter.

Seocho-gu (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) announced that it completed the additional installation of ‘road heating cables that melt snow’ at four locations earlier this month to prevent accidents caused by heavy snow and icy roads in winter.

With this, since installing the sidewalk heating system in front of the Yangjae 1-dong Civil Service Sub-office (11-13 Yangjae-dong) in 2019?the first among local governments nationwide?the district has completed installation at a total of 10 locations covering 2 km as of this year.

This year’s installation sections include ▲the hill road in front of Seocho Catholic Church (64-gil, Seocho-daero) 280m ▲the entrance to the Cheonggyesan hiking trail in Naegok-dong (Wonteo-gil) 124m ▲the road beside Sangmun High School (1-gil, Myeongdal-ro) 240m ▲the cloud bridge in Bangbae-dong (20-gil, Hyoryeong-ro) 400m, totaling about 1 km. The district invested about 1 billion KRW from its budget and 520 million KRW from the city budget.

The road heating cable system installs heating cables 7cm below the road surface and activates heat through sensors on the surface when it snows to melt the snow. This is an eco-friendly method that reduces the use of calcium chloride deicing agents, preventing corrosion of road facilities.

Last year, the district also installed heating cables at six locations on hill roads and sloped alleys such as Seocho-daero 65-gil.

Going forward, the district plans to install road heating cables at a total of 26 locations by 2026 to prevent safety accidents for residents.

Besides installing road heating cables, the district is preparing for heavy snow by operating ▲automatic brine spraying devices ▲free deicing tool boxes accessible to anyone ▲sidewalk snow removal machines ▲and autonomous snow removal teams.

Mayor Jeon Seong-su said, “Since the road heating cable project has high resident satisfaction, we will continue to install additional cables mainly in sections prone to icy accidents and do our best to ensure residents’ safety in preparation for heavy snow.”

Dongjak-gu (Mayor Park Il-ha) will install ‘automatic road heating cables’ at five snow removal vulnerable locations in the district to alleviate residents’ inconvenience and prevent safety accidents caused by heavy snow in winter.

This project is part of Mayor Park Il-ha’s 108 pledges ‘100-day action plan’ and aims to complete installation before the winter snow removal measures are implemented.

The district conducted a full survey of steep slopes in the area and will introduce automatic road heating cables focusing on vulnerable snow removal sections starting from the 22nd of this month.

Automatic road heating cables are remote-controlled systems that detect temperature and humidity through sensors on the road surface and automatically melt snow during snowfall. They enable rapid initial response through weather monitoring and CCTV and have fewer spatial constraints, resulting in high resident satisfaction.

The installation sections include ▲105 Seongdae-ro ▲280 Sangdo-dong ▲214 Guksabong 1-gil ▲Sadang-ro 2a-gil ▲and the upper road around the Shinsangdo underpass, totaling 725m across five locations. Installation work is scheduled to be completed by early November.

Installing road heating cables can reduce the use of environmentally harmful calcium chloride deicing agents and create road conditions where snow does not accumulate automatically during snowfall.

Especially, since the district experienced a record hourly rainfall of 141.5mm last month, rapid cold waves and heavy snow are expected to increase this winter. The district is securing an additional supplementary budget of 3.5 billion KRW to install automatic road heating cables over 18 locations covering 2,563m.

Mayor Park Il-ha said, “We will do our best to complete the installation of road heating cables before the winter snow removal measures are activated to alleviate residents’ inconvenience in traffic and ensure safety during heavy snow.”