Pyeongtaek City Holds Meeting with Small Business Owners and Traditional Markets... Promotes Economic Revitalization Measures

Measures such as local currency and loan support prepared
Mayor Jeong: "Doing our best to revitalize neighborhood markets"

On the 24th, Pyeongtaek City in Gyeonggi Province held a meeting with local small business owners and traditional market merchants to devise measures to revitalize the local economy, the city announced on the 26th. At the meeting, the city decided to actively promote measures to boost the local economy, including expanding incentives for local currency and providing loan support.

Jeong Jang-seon (second from the right), Mayor of Pyeongtaek, is explaining support measures for the recovery of the local economy during a meeting with small business owners and traditional market merchants in the area. Photo by Pyeongtaek City

About 30 people attended the meeting, including Mayor Jeong Jang-seon of Pyeongtaek, representatives from related organizations, the president of the city’s Small Business Association, and chairpersons of traditional market and alleyway commercial district merchant associations. The city explained ongoing measures to stabilize livelihoods and revitalize the local economy and gathered various opinions.

At the meeting, the city explained its plan to provide disaster relief funds in advance to 223 small business owners affected by heavy snowfall at the end of last month and to offer additional support. Along with this, the city announced various support measures to help small business owners, traditional markets, and alleyway commercial districts struggling due to the economic downturn.

First, the city plans to raise the incentive for the local currency, 'Pyeongtaek Sarang Gift Certificate,' to a maximum of 10% and temporarily provide a 10% cashback on payment amounts.

To alleviate financial difficulties for small business owners, the city will implement a special guarantee of 1.5 billion KRW and expand interest subsidy support on loans from one year to three years. Additionally, the city will promote various local economic revitalization measures, including ▲support for public delivery apps (100 million KRW) ▲support for traditional market revitalization projects (406 million KRW) ▲support for alleyway commercial district communities (83 million KRW).

Participants in the meeting requested the city to support delivery app fees, extend loan repayment periods for small business owners, expand the scope of the “Tongkeun Sale,” increase funding for alleyway commercial district revitalization projects, and encourage public institutions and private companies to increase the use of local restaurants during the year-end and New Year holidays to help recover the local economy. The city plans to reflect these suggestions in its policies to promote the revitalization of local commercial districts.

Mayor Jeong said, “We are encouraging public officials and private companies to hold year-end gatherings in markets or alleyway commercial districts, which have a significant impact on the livelihoods of ordinary people. We will do our best to resolve the management difficulties faced by small business owners, who are the foundation of the local economy, and to revitalize alleyway commercial districts.”