"‘Paying First’ is ‘Kind Payment’ … Busan City Launches Prepayment Campaign"

Busan-style Prepayment Expands from Public Institutions to Private Sector

Voluntary Citizen Movement Grows to Support Small Business Owners and Self-Employed

Two-Month Intensive Promotion Event Held Until End of April

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] “Paying in advance is also a kind payment.” A citizen campaign to pay in advance to support the operation of neighborhood stores is being held in Busan.

The Busan Metropolitan City (Acting Mayor Lee Byung-jin) announced on the 2nd that it will expand the 'Our Neighborhood Regular Store Advance Payment Citizen Campaign' to the private sector to support the recovery of small business owners' management damage due to the prolonged social distancing caused by COVID-19.

The advance payment method is a good consumer movement where citizens pay a certain amount in advance at small business establishments such as nearby restaurants, cafes, sports facilities, and academies they usually use to help regular stores and alleviate the difficulties of small business owners.

The private sector advance payment citizen campaign will be held throughout the year, and Busan City will set a focused promotional period until the end of April and hold a prize event for two months to expand participation.

Participation method allows citizens to participate by making an advance payment of 50,000 won or more at all stores in the city except large stores, department stores, and online media, and certifying receipts and verification materials through the city’s website.

Participants will be entered into a lottery held weekly for 9 rounds, and a total of 468 people will receive mobile Onnuri gift certificates (50,000 won for 63 people, 30,000 won for 90 people, 10,000 won for 315 people) as prizes.

On February 4th, Busan Acting Mayor Lee Byung-jin, along with representatives from affiliated public institutions, the Chamber of Commerce, and local financial institutions, signed an agreement to participate in advance payment.

Before the Lunar New Year holiday, the city and district offices paid 1.9 billion won from business promotion expenses, and BNK Busan Bank made advance payments of 200 million won at 174 branches.

Acting Mayor Lee Byung-jin said, “To reduce fixed costs for small business owners and self-employed people, we provided Busan-type plus support funds of 1 million won and 500,000 won respectively to businesses subject to gathering bans and business restrictions over the past month, and from February 15th, we are also promoting a good landlord property tax support project, but it is still insufficient to comfort small business owners,” adding, “Social solidarity is necessary to overcome the economic crisis.”

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