Gwangju City Awards Certificates to Two 'Social Economy Leading Companies'

Hope Resources Co., Ltd. · 21st Century DS Co., Ltd.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 20th that it selected two leading social economy companies in 2022 and held a certificate and plaque awarding ceremony at the office of 21st Century DS Co., Ltd.

Gwangju conducted a public contest from April to May, organized by the Gwangju Social Economy Support Center, to foster promising social economy companies with high growth potential as successful models.

After document screening and on-site inspections, two companies, Hope Resource Co., Ltd. and 21st Century DS Co., Ltd., were selected.

Hope Resource Co., Ltd. is a social enterprise and self-support enterprise that contributes to the development of the local community by solving environmental problems through recycling and large waste disposal businesses and creating jobs for vulnerable groups.

21st Century DS Co., Ltd. contributes to improving citizens' health and creating jobs for vulnerable groups by providing professional physical education programs to educational and care institutions in the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions.

Gwangju plans to support each of the two selected companies with 33 million KRW annually for two years to promote management, market development, publicity, and quality improvement.

Additionally, through joint workshops for leading companies, collaboration networks will be established and activities to return social value will be conducted.

Previously selected leading companies held a kimchi sharing event in November last year and delivered approximately 1,500 kg of kimchi to about 300 vulnerable households, including families with disabilities and elderly living alone in the region.

Leading social economy companies are selected to discover promising companies that realize social economy values and have development potential, and to support them to leap into social economy star companies through customized support. Gwangju has selected 22 companies since 2017.

Park Jeonghwan, Director of the City’s Job Economy Office, said, “I hope these leading social economy companies grow as successful models in the social economy field and establish themselves as representative companies that lead and develop the local social economy.”

Meanwhile, in the region, a total of 1,391 social enterprises, including 228 (preliminary) social enterprises, 1,060 cooperatives, 67 village enterprises, and 36 self-support enterprises, are striving to realize social values such as job creation for vulnerable groups and expansion of social services.

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