Joo Kyuil, Mayor of Jinju, Launches Global Marketing to Promote K-Entrepreneurship

Attended UN SME Day event in Geneva, Switzerland
Emphasized excellence of Jinju K-Entrepreneurship
Both Jinju and Fribourg, birthplace of Davos Forum,
pledged mutual cooperation for international economic forum

Joo Kyuil, the mayor of Jinju, Gyeongnam, delivered consecutive speeches at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Fribourg School of Management, at the invitation of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) for the UN Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day event. He promoted the excellence of Jinju K-Entrepreneurship and discussed mutual cooperation between Jinju and Fribourg for the cities' international economic forums.

As his first engagement, on June 27, he participated as a speaker at the UN MSME Day 2024 event held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, under the theme "The Evolution of the United Nations' Sustainable Development through MSMEs: Human-Centered Impact." He emphasized the sustainable development of MSMEs through the global spread of Jinju K-Entrepreneurship and proposed human-centered Jinju K-Entrepreneurship as a solution to overcoming the global economic crisis.

This year's UN MSME Day event, supported by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations and the International Labour Organization (ILO), was attended by over 300 global political, business, and international organization leaders, including Joo Kyuil, Mayor of Jinju; Shin Changjae, Chairman of Kyobo Life Insurance; Yoon Sungdeok, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the UN; Matthew Wilson, Ambassador of Barbados to the UN; Dragan Radic, Head of SME Unit at the ILO; Agustina Morni, Policy Head of the International Organization of Employers; Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business Development Agency; and Sonja Betschart, Co-founder of Swiss WeRobots.

At the UN Small Business Day event, Mayor Cho Gyuil, invited by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), is delivering a speech at the United Nations Headquarters.

That afternoon, he met with Ambassador Yoon Sungdeok of the Republic of Korea to discuss various ways to spread Jinju K-Entrepreneurship as an alternative to overcoming the economic crisis, and requested active support and cooperation from the Korean delegation.

Yoon Sungdeok, who was elected as the Chair of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Governing Body for the 2024-2025 term this June, stated, "The ILO is looking forward to Korea's role in facing new types of crises such as demographic changes and the climate crisis," and added, "I hope Jinju K-Entrepreneurship will meet these expectations as a new spirit of the times."

On June 28, he attended the Geneva-Fribourg Forum hosted by the International Council for Small Business and the Fribourg School of Management, and delivered a keynote speech on "Jinju K-Entrepreneurship and the Role of Jinju, the Capital of Korean Entrepreneurship."

The Geneva-Fribourg Forum, under the theme "The Meeting of East and West: Cases of Entrepreneurship through Confucianism and the Protestant Reformation," brought together over 200 participants including ICSB members, entrepreneurship experts, Swiss businesspeople, professors, and students.

At the forum's opening ceremony, which was attended by Swiss National Assembly member Gerhard Andrey, Raphael Domjan, Chairman of the PlanetSolar Foundation, and Christian Fischer, Co-founder of Bcomp, Mayor Joo Kyuil was introduced as a global leader supporting sustainable development and leading the worldwide spread of entrepreneurship, together with Martin Moritan, the Argentine ambassador and founding member of UN MSME Day.

Mayor Joo Kyuil stated, "The practical academic trend based on the 16th-century Eastern Gyeongui philosophy provided the ethical driving force for the formation of the Silhak school and modern commercial capitalism," and added, "The roots of the Western capitalist spirit can be found in the 16th-century Reformation, which began as a reform of the established order dominated by the medieval Catholic Church. Max Weber noted this and, in his book 'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,' pointed out that the Reformation not only achieved its essential goal of restoring Puritan ethics but also, as a result, legitimized the accumulation of individual wealth." He highlighted that Eastern practical Confucianism and the Western Reformation played similar roles in different regions during their respective eras.

An entrepreneurship expert participating in the forum remarked, "Switzerland was the stage for Zwingli and Calvin, who led the Reformation in the early 16th century," and added, "Someday, I hope to learn about Jinju K-Entrepreneurship in Jinju, the capital of Korean entrepreneurship and the stage for K-Entrepreneurship."

Following his keynote speech, Mayor Joo Kyuil held a signing ceremony with Mayor Thierry Steiert of Fribourg, Switzerland, to promote the spread of Jinju K-Entrepreneurship and mutual cooperation for international economic forums between the two cities.

Fribourg has a close connection with the Davos Forum, as Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF, also known as the Davos Forum), graduated from the University of Fribourg. An official from Jinju City expressed hope that this mutual cooperation would serve as an opportunity to strengthen collaboration between the Jinju K-Entrepreneurship International Forum and the WEF in the future.