Pohang City Selected as an Outstanding Local Government for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Regional Finance Cooperation Model Discovery and Support Project

Nation's First Public-Private Partnership Matching Project with Financial Institutions, Largest Fundraising Scale

Selected as an Excellent Regional Financial Cooperation Model Institution, Securing 100 Million KRW Financial Incentive

Pohang City has been selected as an outstanding local government in the ‘2024 Regional Financial Cooperation Model Project’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

A meeting between financial institutions in Pohang City held last November in the city hall's main conference room to revitalize the local economy and support small business owners. Provided by Pohang City

The city achieved the remarkable feat of being chosen as one of the final five outstanding local governments in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s regional financial cooperation model contest project, targeting 243 local governments nationwide, through its special guarantee project.

This is evaluated as the fruit of efforts made by Mayor Lee Kang-deok’s core livelihood economy project, the ‘2024 Pohang City Hope Companion Special Guarantee’ project.

With this selection, Pohang City will receive a special grant of 100 million KRW as a financial incentive and will be supported in promoting the project so that other local governments can benchmark it or the project can spread nationwide.

This contest project is a win-win cooperation project where regional financial institutions and local governments provide financial support to small business owners, youth, and self-employed individuals. It was promoted to meet the demands of the local community by providing effective financial support to small business owners facing management crises due to difficult economic conditions through cooperation with regional financial institutions.

Since this year, Pohang City has been the first in Daegu and Gyeongbuk to promote a public-private cooperation project with financial institutions to create special guarantee funds. By preparing special guarantee funds through 1:1 matching with regional financial institutions, the city has been striving to provide financial support to more local small business owners, and as a result, achieved the remarkable feat of ‘Pohang City Small Business Special Guarantee Fund of 111.4 billion KRW’ this year.

The city plans to expand the special guarantee fund to 200 billion KRW by 2025 to actively expand financial support for small business owners.

In addition, to prevent consumption contraction amid economic instability and revitalize the local economy, Pohang plans to issue Pohang Love Gift Certificates worth 200 billion KRW next year, expanding the issuance amount to 60 billion KRW at the beginning of the year and conducting a 10% discount event.

Furthermore, starting with the expansion of financial support for small business owners, Pohang City intends to devote all efforts to stabilizing the local economy and livelihoods through various policies such as ▲spreading good consumption ▲laying the foundation for recovery of consumer sentiment and revitalization of domestic demand ▲strengthening the sales base of small business owners ▲creating a public-private cooperative atmosphere for price stability.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “In these externally turbulent times, we will focus the capabilities of small business owners to stabilize the local economy and livelihoods,” adding, “We will respond with full force to ensure the price stability policy is quickly established, and by fostering a commercial district foundation where the public and private sectors cooperate and coexist, we will breathe vitality and warmth into Pohang’s economy.”