Kang Ki-jung: "Transition to a New Economic Model Leading Social Value"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Kang Ki-jung, the Democratic Party of Korea's preliminary candidate for mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, stated on the 17th, "We will create a Gwangju where 'the value of people and community' becomes the economy and welfare through the inclusive expansion of the social economy."

Kang emphasized, "Gwangju is growing into a city leading the social economy based on its long-standing community experience and social economy-friendly capabilities," and added, "The social economy is a new economic model to overcome the triple crises of polarization, climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic."

To this end, he pledged five major action tasks: ▲strengthening the Social Economy Innovation Town ▲expanding and reorganizing the administrative organization ▲establishing a social economy fund ▲training professional talent ▲fostering participation-income type social economy enterprises.

Specifically, the recently selected Social Economy Innovation Town will be expanded into a fusion-type innovation space for social economy enterprises and support organizations, establishing a sustainable ecosystem for the social economy.

The Social Economy Innovation Town is envisioned as a central axis of the social economy that provides one-stop services such as startup support, market access, and R&D to social economy enterprises, solving various issues including polarization and inequality, elderly care, and the climate crisis.

Next, the social economy administrative organization will be expanded and reorganized to shift the policy direction of the social economy from quantitative expansion to qualitative growth, strengthen public procurement, and also reorganize the public-private governance system.

Additionally, a social economy fund will be established to ensure that opportunities and funds flow evenly to social economy enterprises and innovative companies.

A joint fund linked to ESG management of public institutions in the Gwangju-Jeonnam Innovation City, public institutions invested and endowed by Gwangju City, and local companies will be created to support social economy enterprises or organizations according to their characteristics.

Along with this, a base university for social economy talent development will be selected to nurture key leaders in the private and public sectors, and the number of participation-income type social economy enterprises, village-based care, and climate crisis response initiatives will be dramatically increased.

Kang stated, "The social economy provides innovative solutions to various social problems in the region and supports a just transition as a new economic model," adding, "Because it aims for the development of people and communities, it has characteristics that pursue democratic operation, cooperation, and solidarity, allowing private enterprises to play an important role in the public domain."

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