Goyang City to Launch Goyang Pay National Funding Project in 2025 with Second Supplementary Budget
Major Concerts Bring Tourist Influx... Expected Boost in Sales for Local Businesses, Accommodations, and Food Services
Goyang Special City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Donghwan) announced on June 25 that it will expand support for customized policy projects for small business owners to enhance their self-sufficiency and strengthen their competitiveness amid the ongoing economic downturn.
The city plans to implement a project through the second supplementary budget following the confirmation of government funding for the issuance of local currency (Goyang Pay) in 2025. However, the provincial funding project has been suspended due to fiscal constraints and other reasons.
According to the city, in the absence of government funding, the cost-sharing ratio between Gyeonggi Province and Goyang City is 40% and 60%, respectively, resulting in a greater financial burden on Goyang City, which ultimately translates into a direct burden on Goyang residents. In contrast, Suwon City shares the costs equally, with 50% each from the province and the city.
Meanwhile, the city is actively promoting a credit guarantee support project for small business owners who lack collateral and therefore have limited access to financing. This project helps resolve collateral issues required for bank loans and enables access to low-interest loans, providing practical support for the business stability of small business owners.
In addition, the city is continuously implementing various support policies for small business owners, including customized support projects for traditional markets and local commercial districts, as well as business environment improvement projects.
In particular, the city is working to improve the system for revitalizing local commercial districts by amending ordinances to ease the criteria for designating alley-type shopping districts, thereby lowering entry barriers.
Despite challenging fiscal conditions, the city continues to promote projects to revitalize commercial districts in declining areas. At the same time, it is conducting a research project to establish a comprehensive plan for revitalizing the local economy to develop more systematic policies. Based on this, the city plans to prepare customized support policies for small business owners tailored to local characteristics.
Recently, Goyang City has seen a significant increase in floating population as world-class artists such as Coldplay, G-Dragon, BTS Jin, Blackpink, Seventeen, and Enhypen have held consecutive concerts in the area. In particular, there has been a notable influx of international tourists, especially foreign fans.
The city expects that these global events will provide substantial benefits to the local economy and to field-based small business owners, such as those in traditional markets, local commercial districts, accommodations, and food service industries, by increasing their sales.
Accordingly, the city emphasizes the need to establish an integrated information service system, including multilingual commercial district guides and tourism information for foreign tourists, and stresses that securing a dedicated budget for this is an urgent priority.
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