Gwangju City, Full Support for Revitalizing Local Construction Industry

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 25th that it has established and will actively implement the ‘2020 Regional Construction Industry Revitalization Plan’ to ensure continuous growth and strengthen competitiveness of the local construction industry.

Support measures focus on three areas with 15 key tasks: ▲continuing to promote measures to strengthen the competitiveness of local construction companies ▲establishing fair trade in the construction market and protecting workers’ rights ▲fostering customized skilled workers and promoting public-private cooperation.

To increase the contract award rate for local construction companies, the city will actively encourage 49% mandatory joint contracting and over 70% subcontracting participation by local construction companies according to the Regional Construction Industry Revitalization Ordinance. It will also actively utilize related systems under the Local Contract Act, such as local restricted bidding and splitting large-scale projects into smaller contracts, by reviewing and implementing them from the basic construction plan stage.

Furthermore, to expand participation in primary and subcontracting, the city plans to strengthen communication and cooperation with local construction companies by signing memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with related organizations such as the city government, autonomous districts, and public corporations, as well as managing subcontracting and conducting status surveys of local companies.

To establish fair trade in the construction market and protect workers’ rights, a public-private joint quarterly inspection of construction sites will be conducted to continuously monitor and prevent illegal subcontracting, wage arrears for workers, and unpaid fees for construction equipment rentals. The city also plans to strengthen customized skilled worker training to improve the employment capabilities of local construction workers.

In particular, to support local construction companies’ registration as cooperative partners of large construction firms and their participation in subcontracting, and to enhance the use of local equipment, materials, and manpower, promotional activities conducted last year will be expanded this year to include public institutions in the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions as well as major central construction companies, promoting ‘promotional sales’ activities that provide practical benefits to local construction companies.

Alongside this, the city will encourage local construction companies to strengthen their own construction and price competitiveness, while reflecting various opinions from the construction industry regarding difficulties and improvements into policies.

Meanwhile, despite the slowdown in the domestic construction market last year, the construction market in the Gwangju area showed expansion, with the total performance of specialized construction companies exceeding 3 trillion won for the first time and increasing by 12.1% compared to the previous year.

Lee Hanguk, Director of the Construction Administration Division of the city, said, “We will do our best to support active contract acquisition and promotional activities so that excellent local construction companies can be registered as cooperative partners of large construction firms and that subcontracting participation by local companies is further expanded.”

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