Haenam-gun Receives 'Grand Prize' in Regional Economy Revitalization Evaluation

Selected as an Excellent Institution for Two Consecutive Years for Efforts to Overcome COVID-19 Including Support for Small Business Owners

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Haenam County won the ‘Grand Prize’ in the 2020 Regional Economic Revitalization Evaluation conducted by Jeollanam-do.

According to Haenam County on the 18th, following last year's Excellence Award, this year it took first place, once again recognizing its achievements in preventing regional economic stagnation and improving residents' quality of life through proactive economic revitalization measures despite the crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19.

The regional economic revitalization evaluation is conducted targeting 22 cities and counties in Jeollanam-do to actively discover excellent economic policy cases of cities and counties and to promote the improvement of residents' quality of life and regional economic revitalization.

The evaluation covers 13 indicators across 6 areas including excellent regional economic policies, price management, traditional markets, support and fostering of small business owners and SMEs, activation of agricultural and industrial complexes, and creating a business-friendly environment.

Especially this year, with the addition of evaluations on traditional markets, support and fostering of SMEs and small business owners, and industrial complex revitalization policies, Haenam County received favorable reviews for its traditional market revitalization policy under the slogan ‘Haenam-eup 5-Day Market Dreaming of Cooperation and Coexistence,’ by implementing women-only restrooms, repairing old wiring in the 5-day market, and supporting delivery helpers.

Additionally, with the establishment of a new parking lot costing 3 billion KRW and securing 14.2 billion KRW in project funds through the Urban Regeneration New Deal project contest, a green light has been given for revitalizing the traditional market and the old downtown area.

As an excellent policy for SMEs, the operation of Haenam Miso, a Haenam County-operated shopping mall that achieved 10 billion KRW in sales this year, was highly evaluated.

By establishing an agricultural product comprehensive processing support center and a fisheries food industry hub complex in the Ttangkkeut Haenam Food Specialization Complex, Haenam County has laid the foundation for agricultural and marine product processing, and by opening a permanent offline sales outlet for Haenam Miso, it is emerging as an advanced base for the 6th industry that integrates production, processing, and sales.

In response to the spread of COVID-19, Haenam County provided full support of 16.219 billion KRW across 8 types through the ‘Small Business Owner Support Angel Project.’

For the first time in Jeonnam, emergency management stabilization funds of 1 million KRW each were paid to all business operators including small business owners, totaling over 6.3 billion KRW, and support was significantly increased with 500 million KRW in special guarantees, 100 million KRW in guarantee fees, and up to 300 million KRW in interest subsidies on loans.

Support included 2 million KRW per store for store environment improvement, 1 billion KRW for business succession startup support, and 50 million KRW for e-commerce startup challenge support, while the county also invested funds to hold a non-face-to-face festival event for local shopping districts.

The Haenam Love Gift Certificates issued this year amounting to 125 billion KRW have sold 111.8 billion KRW so far, recording the highest sales in Jeonnam for two consecutive years.

Haenam County’s regional economic revitalization policies also hold great significance in that practical support measures were prepared through two rounds of surveys conducted with 4,881 small business owners within the region.

County Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan stated, “The honor of winning the grand prize is the result of the cooperation of the public, private, and corporate sectors working together throughout 2020 to support small business owners and residents who have been struggling and exhausted due to COVID-19. We will actively strive to revitalize the regional economy for a happy community created together by farmers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs.”

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