Gyeongnam Goseong Market Selected for Specialized Market Development Project After 4 Attempts

Transformed into a Cultural Tourism-Oriented Traditional Market

Goseong Market in Goseong County, Gyeongnam, has been finally selected for the 2023 Specialized Market Development Project (Culture and Tourism Type), a public contest project by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Song Jong-gu] Goseong Market, a traditional market in Goseong-gun, Gyeongnam, has been finally selected for the 2023 Specialized Market Development Project (Culture and Tourism Type), a public contest project by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

With this project selection, a total budget of up to 1 billion KRW over two years (440 million KRW in the first year, 50% national funding) will be invested in Goseong Market, the largest traditional market among the western Gyeongnam five-day markets, to promote ▲ cultural content-linked projects such as Saturday cultural performances and food markets ▲ self-sustainability enhancement projects such as merchant education and consulting ▲ revitalization events such as market festivals and representative food contests.

In particular, this project is especially meaningful as it was selected after four attempts to fulfill Mayor Sang-geun Lee’s pledge in the 8th local government term to revitalize traditional markets by integrating cultural content.

Besides this project, the county has secured a total budget of 1.6 billion KRW in national funding for ‘Smart R&D Research and Development,’ 70 million KRW for the ‘Market Management Package Support Project,’ and 150 million KRW for ‘Gyeongnam Representative Tourism Market and Specialized Market,’ raising expectations that traditional markets will be revitalized with a noticeably different appearance this year.

Mayor Lee said, “Through the Specialized Market Development Project, we expect the traditional market to become a culture and tourism-oriented market with differentiated content, not just modernization of facilities,” adding, “The fact that Goseong’s traditional market has been selected for so many projects shows that it is a market with sufficient potential for development nationwide. We will devote ourselves to the innovation and transformation of traditional markets going forward.”