Ulsan City Increases Purchases of Socially Vulnerable Enterprises' Products by Reviving Private Contracting

Ulsan City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Ulsan City has decided to expand the purchase of products from socially disadvantaged enterprises such as women-owned businesses, disabled-owned businesses, and social enterprises through private contracts.

Last year, Ulsan City established the "Plan to Strengthen Support for Socially Disadvantaged Enterprises" to increase the purchase rate of products from these companies, achieving a prioritized purchase amount of 37.3 billion KRW, a 34% increase compared to 2020.

This year, as difficulties have intensified due to nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city plans to actively utilize the private contract system, which has practical effects and high ripple effects, to increase public procurement from socially disadvantaged enterprises.

Under the current Local Contract Act, socially disadvantaged enterprises such as women-owned, disabled-owned, and social enterprises can enter into private contracts for estimated prices up to 50 million KRW.

Additionally, to protect socially disadvantaged enterprises, the city plans to actively use single-quote private contracts in cases where bidding is not feasible due to disasters, urgent events, and other situations.

However, social enterprises must meet an employment rate of 30% or more for vulnerable groups to be eligible for private contracts.

An official from Ulsan City stated, "During this time when everyone is facing difficulties due to COVID-19, we plan to focus on discovering new companies and guiding procurement company registration to expand public purchases, so that we can provide practical help to socially disadvantaged enterprises in Ulsan."

To improve private contracts, Ulsan City will register and manage the status of "the same company exceeding five single-quote private contracts" and "companies excluded from private contracts" in the Ulsan City administrative computer network to prevent the concentration of private contracts with the same company and enhance fairness in contracts by discovering new companies.

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