Ministry of SMEs and Startups Announces Recruitment for '2023 Traditional Market and Shopping District Revitalization Project'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 4th that it will begin recruiting support targets for the '2023 Traditional Market and Shopping District Revitalization Project' from the 13th, covering a total of 10 projects including the Specialized Market Development Project, Market Management Package, and Fire Alarm Installation.

This announcement aims to decide the 2023 support targets in advance so that selected markets can secure sufficient preparation time for the projects and the relevant local governments can arrange budgets early. Approximately 500 locations will be supported with 41.2 billion KRW (based on the government proposal).

This project focuses on disaster preparedness and strengthening merchants' self-reliance. The main goal is to create traditional markets and shopping districts where both merchants and customers can feel safe through thorough pre-disaster and disaster preparations, preventing merchants who have lost their livelihoods due to fires or floods, such as the concentrated heavy rains in the metropolitan area last August, from being unable to return.

To this end, stores with less than 35% of all operating stores subscribed to fire mutual aid or private fire insurance are restricted from applying for the project. Locations that have not implemented follow-up measures after safety inspections according to Article 20-2 of the Traditional Market Act will receive point deductions during evaluation. Additionally, places with a fire mutual aid or private fire insurance subscription rate of 50% or higher and those with high subscription rates for wind and flood insurance will receive preferential support. Traditional markets and shopping districts in areas declared special disaster zones during the concentrated heavy rains last August will be awarded additional points during evaluation.

For the 'Market Manager' program aimed at strengthening administrative capabilities of traditional markets, new qualification requirements will be introduced to enhance the professionalism of managers. Furthermore, the completion rate of merchant training conducted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will be reflected in the evaluation to strengthen merchants' capabilities.

Traditional markets and shopping districts wishing to apply for next year's project support must submit their application forms and business plans by October 7th via mail or online.

The results of the support target selection will be announced around December, after written and on-site evaluations, when the final support budget is determined.

Won Young-jun, Director of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We sincerely thank the merchants who have steadfastly supported the grassroots economy despite difficulties caused by the COVID-19 aftermath and the three highs (high inflation, high interest rates, high exchange rates). The Ministry plans to mobilize all policy capabilities for the rapid normalization of management in traditional markets and shopping districts, including digitalization of traditional markets to prepare for the digital economy era and joint marketing support to promote domestic consumption."

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