Support for 100 Social Economy Collaboratives to Help Seoul Small Businesses Overcome Recession

Five or More Small Businesses Join to Transform into Social Enterprises, Cooperatives, or Village Enterprises
Up to 30 Million KRW Support per Collaboration Group... Increased Sales and Competitiveness through Joint Purchasing and Branding

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 21st that it will launch the 'Small Business-Social Economy Collaboration Project' to support small business owners in local shopping districts who are struggling due to the prolonged recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to overcome the crisis through the 'social economy' approach.

The goal is for five or more small business owners in the same local shopping district, operating in the same or similar industries, to form a single collaborative group, transition into social economy enterprises such as cooperatives, social enterprises, village enterprises, or self-support enterprises, and jointly promote all areas of management including purchasing, production, sales, distribution, branding, and marketing to expand scale and enhance competitiveness.

For example, five shoe stores in the same area can form a cooperative, jointly purchase leather to reduce costs, and create a joint brand to discover new sales channels together. Also, as non-face-to-face purchasing culture expands recently, delivery services are gaining attention, so local bakeries could start a neighborhood delivery service together.

The city expects that by adopting this social economy approach, management efficiency can be improved and competitiveness strengthened, resulting in not only actual sales growth but also revitalizing local shopping districts.

Through this collaboration project, Seoul plans to discover up to 100 collaborative groups. Considering that small business owners may lack expertise in this social economy approach, the city will select regional support organizations (social economy organizations) to act as project coordinators to assist with collaboration among businesses and the establishment of social economy enterprises.

Social economy regional support organizations wishing to participate can fill out the application form posted on the Seoul Social Economy Support Center website (www.sehub.net) by next month 4th and submit it via email (peace@sehub.net). The city will select about 10 regional support organizations and promote the project until December by having each selected organization discover 5 to 10 collaborative groups.

Each collaborative group will receive up to 30 million KRW depending on the activation level of the local shopping district and community. The support funds must be used for ▲joint brand development ▲customer management system establishment ▲joint purchasing ▲market and exhibition hosting ▲sales channel development ▲transition to social economy enterprises ▲education, etc.

Additionally, for about five collaborative groups (local shopping districts), the city will pilot a 'joint delivery distribution system' by linking with delivery cooperatives to promote local delivery services and provide an additional 30 million KRW in support. The city plans to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the project, such as reducing delivery fees, and reflect it in future small business support policies.

Ko Kwang-hyun, Seoul's Social Economy Officer, said, "The Small Business-Social Economy Collaboration Project is a program to enhance the competitiveness of small business owners in local shopping districts struggling due to COVID-19 by transitioning them into social economy organizations like cooperatives. We will do our best to promote this project to increase resilience against external crises through the social economy safety net, revitalize the local economy, and spread the value of sustainable social economy."

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