Busan City Youth 'Local Creator' Project Takes First Step ... First in the Region to Secure Own Budget

Driving Local Economic Revitalization, Launch of Outstanding Youth Discovery and Development Project

3 Billion KRW City Budget Invested, Specialized Programs and Local Activation Street Operation

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-jun) is officially launching the ‘Busan Youth Local Creator Development’ project to discover potential content, enhance its value, create youth jobs, and support future-oriented small business startups.

A local creator is an entrepreneur who solves regional issues and creates new value by integrating innovative business models based on local characteristics (culture, tourism, etc.) and resources (spaces, products, etc.).

Most government support has been concentrated on technology startups and lifestyle startups, resulting in insufficient startup support and investment linkage policies for regional content.

Additionally, one-time commercialization funding and single-event startup and business support have limited the sustainable growth of local creators.

To overcome this, Busan City has secured a budget of 300 million KRW, the first of its kind in the region.

Rather than focusing on funding support policies for local creators, the city plans to accelerate startups and revitalize the neighborhood economy by concentrating on education, mentoring, and investment attraction support.

This project consists of three programs aimed at discovering and nurturing representative local creators in Busan and revitalizing the regional economy: ▲ specialized education and mentoring for Busan local creators in specific fields (local food and space branding) ▲ designation of local creator activation streets and support for anchor institution operations ▲ investment linkage for neighborhood economy revitalization.

▲ The specialized education and mentoring program plans to select professional educational institutions to intensively nurture local creators in the local food sector, which combines Busan’s specialized food and culture, and the space branding sector. It will recruit startup companies (including prospective entrepreneurs) and provide customized education and mentoring.

▲ For the local creator activation streets, anchor institutions proposing distinctive business models for each basic local government will be selected to support marketing activities, prototype production, community activation, and event hosting for local creators in the respective areas.

▲ Excellent local creators discovered by educational institutions and anchor institutions, as well as outstanding local creators in the region, will be provided with investment linkage opportunities. This will play a role in revitalizing the neighborhood economy through investment attraction and growth, contributing to Busan’s economic recovery.

To efficiently promote the project, operating institutions for each program will be recruited. The specialized education institutions will be announced from April 14 to May 4, and anchor institutions for activation streets will be announced from April 19 to May 10.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “Creative local creators who fit the lifestyle changes after COVID-19 will lead the regional economy. This locally driven project will make Busan a city where local creators can start businesses easily.”

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