[Small and medium enterprises appeared as social contributors]

The province\’s small and medium enterprises took the initiative for volunteer work, which includes voluntary services and backup for welfare facilities. On March 3, they made a formal agreement for such work and celebrated the establishment of a sisterhood relationship.

Gyeonggi province, the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, and the Gyeonggi Small and Medium Enterprises Hybrid Business Association concluded a support agreement for small and medium enterprises’ social contributions
According to the agreement, the Hybrid Business Association comprised of about 730 small and medium enterprises will support Gyeonggi province\’s social welfare work through voluntary services and financial backing. The Gyeonggi welfare and future foundation on the other hand, will develop a certification program for small and medium enterprises that make efforts towards social contributions.

Gyeonggi province will give incentives, such as additional points and preferential treatments for guarantees to small and medium enterprises selected through the social contribution certification system.
Increased participation is expected to have an enterprise-friendly effect on Gyeonggi residents and provincial welfare facilities.

Gyeonggi province plans on expanding the recipient of this system and will promote more agreements with more enterprises and organizations.

[Safer residential facilities]

Many neighbors amongst us are living in poor surroundings. Seniors living alone and young heads of families, especially, are living in places under the threat of possible fire and in the way of other dangers, due to old gas and electrical facilities. Gyeonggi province decided to provide repair work for these residents.

Gyeonggi province will provide a free inspection and repair service on the houses of seniors living alone and young people who are living independently.

Accordingly, about 1300 Basic Livelihood Security Recipients and provincial social welfare centers will receive gas facility repair work from the Korea Gas Safety Corporation.
Electrical repair work is intended for 320 households. Old equipment such as ground detectors, wall sockets, and fluorescent lamps will be replaced

Since 2001, when Gyeonggi first introduced this municipal enterprise, about 6000 households have received free repairs. After this project is finished, the province will expand its work to welfare centers and seniors’centers.

[Heard of \’safety phones\’?]

Since 2005, Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters has been giving out \’safety-phones\’ to those in need. yeonggi province and the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters have been providing \’safety phones\’ to seniors living alone who are 65 years of age or older, and heads of households under 18, since 2005.

When someone who lives alone requires assistance, pressing one simple key will contact 119 emergency services.

If the person in charge of social welfare sends us the request form, we will give out \’safety phones\’ to protect them from danger.

When a \’safety phone\’ call is received at the Emergency Headquarters, the current location and personal information of the caller is displayed on the screen and the 119 emergency workers dispatched to the location.
We followed the firefighters to one reported \’safety phone\’ location

The workers quickly check the condition of the old woman Her blood pressure is 160 over 100. She had her hypotensive drug, so she will be better soon. The blood pressure is not very high, so she won’t need a doctor today.

At present, over 12,000 people have his phone. For practicality, people in other estranged brackets should be made known about this service.

[Bus info is a snap]

Waiting for the bus can be a waste of time. But, now more and more people are checking the time of arrival using their cell phones.The Gyeonggi province bus information service can be directly connected through each telephone company\’s wireless network.

If five inherent numbers at this bus stop are inserted, the estimated time of arrival, current location, and bus line information are displayed on the phone.

The Gyeonggi province bus information service had been connected more than 2.7 million times by cell phone users making it the number one service for connections in the greater Seoul area, second place nationwide.
The province will expand the service with more information and broader limits of service zones to include Seoul and Incheon.

On the other hand, users should take into account the data rate charged for the wireless network.

[School meals Directly Managed]

While students eat school meals at least once in the school day from an outsourced foodservice company, many schools are taking initiative to switch over to direct management. The Gyeonggi Provincial Ministry of Education announced that 48 school meal services will fall under direct management this year.
The Ministry of Education is considering an $18 million dollar investment to improve facilities and provide dinner for designated schools.

This project has been carried out since 2003, and now all elementary schools in the province are to switch over to direct management.

Those schools that haven’t yet changed to direct management are reforming their facilities while consigning the business to a lunch agent to undergo the management shift.
According to the new school meal law, all schools must convert to direct management in three years. Therefore, the Gyeonggi Provincial Ministry of Education will convert all schools in Gyeonggi province to direct management by 2010.

[Public Library Usage]

From December 2007 to February 2008 Gyeonggi province asked 500 people about the condition of public library services in Gyeonggi province.

The research showed of 372 people 73% replied that they use public libraries. Average visits per person were at 4.2 times per month. The poll found that of women, house wives, college students and office workers used the public library the most. Of men, office workers between the ages of 30 to 40 visited the public library the most.

People visited the library to spend time, do school work, and to work on other personal tasks. The most frequently used services were lending and returning books and reading room services.

In order to foster library use, the collection of books should be expanded; they should be located in places that are accessible, and open for longer hours.

[International Championships]

There will be world boat show and international yacht Championship in June at Jeongok port, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi. It is expected to contribute to the earnings and development of the ocean leisure industry.
This is a boat yard in Hwaseong that handles boats for leisure and sport.

Professional engineers, who were once yacht sailors and majored in marine engineering, are working on yachts that will be used in the World Yacht Championship in June.

Since the ocean leisure industry has not yet been developed much, most boat manufacturing companies are having trouble with domestic sales. Therefore they are expecting a lot from this championship.

Starting from this championship, I wish there will be more of such championships and infrastructures developed in Korea.

Gyeonggi province will hold the international Boat Show in Hwaseong this June to promote the ocean leisure industry.

For the successful conduct of these events, Gyeonggi province signed a memorandum of understanding with the British Marine Federation.