Chungnam to Host 'Social Economy Innovation Town'... Targeting Completion in Cheongyang by 2022

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province has attracted a social economy innovation town to Cheongyang. The innovation town is planned to be completed by 2022.

The province announced on the 27th that it was finally selected for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s ‘2020 Social Economy Innovation Town Creation Contest Project.’

The innovation town aims to establish human and physical bases for collaboration, networking, and innovation in the social economy, creating an integrated support system and a social economy ecosystem within the region.

According to the final selection results, the province plans to establish an innovation hub for social economy manufacturing and distribution linked to rural resources based on the local community.

Previously, the province selected Cheongyang-gun as the final candidate site for the innovation town after conducting demand surveys and evaluations of cities and counties last year.

The target site is the former Cheongyang Girls’ Information High School located in Cheongyang-gun, where the main building will be remodeled and new construction will be carried out to complete the innovation town. This site will simultaneously carry out fostering, support, education, and sales of social economy enterprises in the future.

In particular, the province expects the innovation center to present Korea’s first rural-type social economy model and serve as a catalyst for the creation of mini innovation towns in each city and county linked to the innovation town.

The province plans to proceed with the project aiming for completion in 2022 after securing additional supplementary budget this year through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s central investment review. The total project cost is 28 billion KRW, with national and local governments sharing the cost equally at a 5:5 ratio.

Ko Jun-geun, Director of the Community Support Bureau of the province, said, “Attracting the social economy innovation town is an important foundation necessary to create a sustainable social economy ecosystem within the region,” and added, “We will create good jobs for vulnerable groups such as youth and achieve balanced development through proactive policies addressing aging and population decline.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.