Why Kim Mikyung, Eunpyeong District Mayor, Is Actively Working to Revive Local Bookstores?

Continued Promotion of Fixed-Price Book Purchases at Local Bookstores, Budget Expansion Next Year... Kim Mi-kyung, Eunpyeong District Mayor, Listens to Issues at Bulgwang Bookstore Visit on August 31

Kim Mi-kyung, the mayor of Eunpyeong District, is visiting Bulgwang Bookstore on August 31st and talking with the staff.

Kim Mikyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong District, is talking with Choi Nakbeom, CEO of Bulgwang Bookstore, on August 31.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) is actively working to save local bookstores, which are losing their place due to large and online bookstores, as cultural spaces for residents.

Earlier, on the 17th of last month, Bulkwang Bookstore, a representative local bookstore in Eunpyeong-gu, announced its closure this month due to financial difficulties. In response, a petition titled "Please protect Eunpyeong-gu's local bookstores" was posted on the Eunpyeong-gu Office's Open Petition website, gaining support from over 1,500 people as of August 31.

Accordingly, the district is striving to prepare support measures to save local bookstores by conveying residents' opinions and the district's requests to the landlord (corporation) to ensure Bulkwang Bookstore can continue operating. Positive results have been achieved in the process of transferring the contract after employee acquisition.

In particular, since 2015, as part of support measures for local bookstores, the district signed a business agreement with the Korea Bookstore Association Eunpyeong Branch and has been purchasing books from local bookstores. Since last year, it has been implementing support measures to purchase books at list price to help local bookstores facing economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Until last year, about 3.9 billion KRW worth of book purchases were supported for local bookstores including Bulkwang Bookstore, and this year, about 940 million KRW will be invested. Furthermore, next year, the budget for purchasing books from local bookstores will be expanded to 1.02 billion KRW, which is expected to increase net profits by approximately 10% when purchasing books at list price.

Additionally, efforts to save local bookstores as regional cultural hubs include ▲ requesting priority use of local bookstores when purchasing books (38 local kindergartens, 66 elementary, middle, and high schools) ▲ considering the enactment of ordinances to establish legal grounds for supporting local bookstores and providing book vouchers to local youth ▲ providing loan support through small business development funds and special credit guarantees for COVID-19 affected companies.

Meanwhile, on the 31st of last month, Kim Mi-kyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong-gu, visited Bulkwang Bookstore to listen to concerns regarding local bookstore operations from related parties.

Mayor Kim said, “It is very unfortunate that local bookstores, which are precious cultural spaces for residents and not just places to sell books, are gradually disappearing due to financial difficulties.” She added, “We will make every effort to devise detailed measures and pay close attention so that local bookstores, which are disappearing due to competition with online bookstores, can regain vitality.”

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