Donam Traditional Market Merchants and Seongbuk-gu Mayor Lee Seung-ro Request Increased Budget for Local Love Gift Certificates
Ahead of 10 Billion Won Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate Issuance on December 4
Significant Sales Surge from Issuance Day, Demand for Higher Discounts and Larger Issuance Amounts
On December 4th, ahead of the issuance of the 10 billion KRW-scale ‘Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate,’ Lee Seung-ro, Mayor of Seongbuk District, and merchants of Donam Traditional Market in Seongbuk District conveyed a message demanding the government’s attention and budget expansion for local love gift certificates.
On the 29th, at the central square of Donam Traditional Market, Lee Ki-wan, president of the Donam Market Merchants Association, and other merchants prepared placards with messages such as ‘The IV drip for alleyway markets in pain! Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate!’, ‘For Seongbuk merchants, Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate means survival!’, ‘Issuance of Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate brings a warm breeze to Seongbuk Traditional Market’, and ‘Issuance of Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate energizes traditional markets, gives them strength!’ They requested the government’s interest and budget expansion for the increased issuance of the Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate.
Lee Seung-ro, Mayor of Seongbuk District, also delivered a message emphasizing the necessity of issuing local love gift certificates for balanced development of commercial districts across Seoul.
The Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate, which will be issued from 10 a.m. on December 4th, can be purchased at a 7% discount from the face value of the certificate, with a maximum purchase limit of 500,000 KRW per person. The holding limit is 1,500,000 KRW.
Purchases can be made using five apps: Moneytree, Seoul Pay+, Shinhan SOL, Shinhan Play, and T-money Pay. The purchased gift certificates can be used at 10,956 affiliated stores within Seongbuk District.
Seongbuk District has issued approximately 190 billion KRW worth of Seongbuk Love Gift Certificates over the past three years to boost private consumption and revitalize the local economy through small business sales amid ongoing difficulties in the livelihood economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, and high interest rates.
During the resurgence of COVID-19 at local religious facilities, a customized local love gift certificate (called Jangseokwol Gift Certificate) was urgently issued for the severely affected Jangwi, Seokgwan, and Wolgok areas, achieving rapid recovery of the local economy.
Through the district’s representative communication channel, the ‘On-site Mayor’s Office,’ residents have continuously proposed additional issuances, and the gift certificates have sold out within minutes each time they were issued, indicating very high resident demand and necessity for the Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate.
Reflecting this actively, even though the related government budget was ‘0 KRW’ for two consecutive years, the district allocated the full amount for the 7% discount rate from its own budget and issued a total of 51 billion KRW worth of Seongbuk Love Gift Certificates in six rounds from January to November. Including this 7th issuance, the total reaches 61 billion KRW.
Lee Seung-ro, Mayor of Seongbuk District, said, “At a time when commercial facilities were absolutely insufficient and the district was stigmatized as the epicenter of the COVID-19 resurgence, Seongbuk’s local economy was once in a life-or-death crisis. Everyone experienced the effects of the Seongbuk Love Gift Certificate then, so despite difficult conditions, we tried to issue as many as possible and will do our best to gain the government’s attention and expand the budget.”
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