KT Helps Busan Overcome COVID-19 Using Local Currency

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] KT is supporting the revitalization of the Busan local economy, which has been struggling due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), through a blockchain-based local currency service.

On the 11th, KT announced that it will fully cover the operating agency costs for the Busan emergency disaster relief fund paid through Busan City's local currency, "Dongbaekjeon." KT will bear all operating expenses, approximately 1% of the amount paid in Dongbaekjeon from Busan City's disaster relief fund. The total scale of Busan City's disaster relief fund is about 940 billion KRW. It is expected that 20-30% of Busan citizens will choose Dongbaekjeon as the means to receive the disaster relief fund.

In particular, KT will apply a method where Busan citizens who have signed up for Dongbaekjeon and choose it as their disaster relief fund receipt method will have the funds collectively charged to their Dongbaekjeon accounts without any additional procedures. This allows citizens to receive the disaster relief funds faster and more conveniently without having to wait for a long time offline.

Going forward, KT plans to continuously strive to activate local currencies nationwide. In the second half of this year, it will develop the local currency service to be easily usable by everyone, considering IT vulnerable groups, not only through card-type or mobile (QR) type payments. Kim Jong-chul, Head of KT Blockchain Biz Center (Executive Director), said, “The role of local currencies in revitalizing the local economy is growing. We will do our best to become Korea’s representative local currency service by supporting the local economy to quickly overcome COVID-19 through stable services and developing services specialized for each region.”

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