Hongcheon-gun, '6th Industry Specialization'... Ministry of SMEs and Startups Attracts 'New Business Startup Academy'

The Only County-Level Selection in Major City Competition

Hongcheon County Office

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-chul] Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do, has succeeded in attracting the 'New Business Startup Academy' promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

It has attracted attention as the only county-level area selected, despite the fact that the program has been mainly chosen in large cities and the evaluation criteria such as population and the ratio of small business owners favor urban areas.

According to Gangwon-do on the 6th, the 'New Business Startup Academy' is an incubator for small business startups that selects trainees from promising prospective entrepreneurs in the region, provides startup education and practical experience through online and offline store simulations, and then supports commercialization funds.

The selected region will invest 1.5 billion KRW of national funds to complete remodeling for training centers, video/audio/photo studios, startup company residency spaces, and networking spaces by June, and will recruit trainees and conduct startup education from the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, existing installation areas include Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, Gyeonggi, Jeonbuk, Gyeongnam, Jeonnam, Ulsan, and Chungbuk. In this competition, besides Hongcheon, Gangwon-do, Gyeongbuk, Chungnam, and Jeju also applied.

From the initial application stage, Gangwon-do established attraction strategies with cities, counties, and related organizations, focusing on developing specialized startup items based on the 6th industry foundation and highlighting Gangwon-do's unique strengths to target evaluation committee members intensively.

Also, the director of the Economic Promotion Bureau of the province personally gave a presentation explaining the necessity of attraction, and it is evaluated that proactively responding to the selection evaluation by utilizing the province's human network was crucial for the successful attraction.

Kim Myung-jung, Deputy Governor for Economy of Gangwon-do, said, "Gangwon region, where the proportion of small business owners is high and many small-scale business owners exist, is experiencing many difficulties in startup activities especially due to the impact of COVID-19," adding, "With the establishment of the New Business Startup Academy, we will increase the success rate of startups through optimized customized support from education to commercialization funding for prospective entrepreneurs, and revitalize the startup ecosystem."

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