65 Companies and About 300 Consultations, Eased Barriers for Partner Registration
Second Round of Consultations Planned in October After Analyzing Outcomes
Gimpo City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Kim Byungsoo) announced that the "Housing Construction Site Local Business Participation and Purchase Consultation Meeting," held over two days from September 10 to 11 at the Gimpo Manufacturing Convergence Innovation Center to support local construction companies struggling due to the downturn in the construction industry, concluded successfully.
As a follow-up to the "Business Leaders' Meeting for Revitalizing the Local Economy" held on July 30, the city organized tailored one-on-one consultations covering all processes involved in apartment construction-including architecture, machinery, electricity, firefighting, and civil engineering-between private construction companies and local businesses.
The scale of apartment projects by participating construction companies included: BS Hanyang Co., Ltd. with 1,710 units (Pungmu Station Area B1 and B2 Blocks), Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. with 1,524 units (Pungmu Station Area B3 Block), Hoban Construction Co., Ltd. with 956 units (Pungmu Station Area B5 Block), Daewon Co., Ltd. with 612 units (Bukbyeon 2 District), and Munjang Construction Co., Ltd. with 385 units (Sau 4 District), totaling 5,187 units. An additional 4,400 units are scheduled for sale next year.
Key achievements of this consultation meeting included: 65 local construction-related companies participating in approximately 300 one-on-one consultations; establishing a direct communication channel between local companies and construction firms; expanding market access and participation opportunities for local businesses; efforts by construction companies to discover outstanding local enterprises; and, for the first time, a two-way consultation meeting led by the local government targeting private housing construction sites.
In particular, the city addressed the challenge of high entry barriers for local companies by negotiating with construction firms to ease registration requirements such as credit ratings, cash flow, and debt ratios when local companies participate as partners. As a result, organizations such as the Gimpo Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea Specialty Contractors Association gave positive feedback, noting that this substantially expanded opportunities for local businesses to participate.
A representative from one participating company stated, "It is usually very difficult for local businesses to establish transactions with large construction companies, but this is the first time the city has arranged one-on-one consultations with construction companies' outsourcing teams. We are grateful to have received consulting on areas for improvement directly from the construction firms."
Gimpo City plans to analyze the outcomes of this consultation meeting and develop supplementary measures. In October, the city will hold a second round of consultations with five construction companies, including Lotte Construction, to further expand cooperation opportunities between local businesses and construction firms.
A Gimpo City official stated, "We will monitor future purchase performance following the consultation meeting and continue to work to foster mutual growth and cooperation between construction companies involved in local housing projects and local businesses."
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