Five New Communities Selected, Each to Receive 25 Million KRW in Growth Support
Differentiated Funding for Ten Existing Districts, Up to 100 Million KRW for Top Two
"We are delivering 'vitamins' to local alley commercial districts in Busan."
The Busan Metropolitan Government (Mayor Park Hyungjoon) is accepting applications for the first phase of the "2025 Alley Commercial District Revitalization Support Project," which aims to develop promising alleys into representative commercial areas of Busan, until the 21st of this month.
Now in its fourth year, this project mainly supports the "Alley Commercial District Specialization Project," which integrates local resources and culture within a 15-minute living radius, in two phases.
The first phase is open to "alley commercial district communities" composed of at least 30 small business owners. A total of five districts will be selected, each receiving a growth support fund of 25 million KRW.
The first phase, called the "Alley Commercial District Community Organization Support Project," focuses on gathering small business owners who are not yet part of formal organizations, empowering them to diagnose and solve their own issues. To this end, the project supports ▲strengthening merchants' capabilities ▲establishing branding strategies tailored to each alley ▲discovering unique stories of the district ▲joint marketing ▲environmental improvements ▲public relations, and more.
The 10 existing alley commercial districts, which have already participated in the project for 2-3 years, will receive differentiated support funds based on evaluations. The two districts that receive the highest ratings will be selected as "Busan-style Alley Assistance" and proceed to the second phase, which is the intensive development process.
The evaluation will be conducted by an evaluation committee consisting of external experts with specialized knowledge, which will be formed in April.
The two districts that receive the highest ratings from the evaluation committee will be designated as "Busan-style Alley Assistance" and receive up to 100 million KRW in support funds for revitalization. They will receive intensive support to become representative commercial districts of Busan in the future.
This support project is characterized by its focus on fostering and developing alley commercial districts that utilize local characteristics, rather than simply improving the environment, with the goal of establishing sustainable alley commercial district communities.
To achieve this, alley commercial district coordinators will be dispatched to provide on-site support for ▲community organization ▲commercial district consulting, and more. Through the activities of these coordinators, participation by small business owners is expected to increase, and the self-sustainability of the commercial districts will be strengthened.
Starting in June, Busan will also launch a support project for university student alley commercial district marketers. By incorporating students' fresh ideas into marketing and business planning, the project aims to improve the management environment and independence of small businesses.
The university student marketer teams, consisting of 65 teams and over 230 members, will be matched one-on-one with small business owners in the alleys to solve on-site problems together and help increase sales for the businesses.
Alley commercial district communities wishing to participate in this project should check the eligibility requirements and apply by 6:00 PM on April 21 via the city's Small Business Comprehensive Support Center website or by registered mail.
For more detailed information, refer to the announcement posted on the Busan Small Business Support Center website or contact the Busan Economic Promotion Agency, the project implementing organization.
Kim Bongcheol, Director of Busan's Digital Economy Office, said, "We hope this support project will be an opportunity to spread the appeal of alley commercial districts that people want to revisit to more citizens. We will do our best to actively discover alley commercial districts that reflect Busan's unique characteristics and to establish a foundation for sustainable revitalization."
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