Good for the Company Is Good for Job Creation!
(Published January 09, 2011)

[Gyeonggi Province Activity of 2012] ② Vibrant economic activity support
Training and cost support for small and medium sized business, regulation reform, solving difficulties for companies

◇ (Photo) Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo poses for a commemorative photo while holding hands with participants after the ‘Gyeonggi Province LED/Solar Major/Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Mutual Support MOU Signing Ceremony’ held at the Gyeonggi Technopark Multipurpose Hall in Ansan City on July 14^th, 2011. ⓒ G-News Plus

Gyeonggi Province selected ‘job creation’ as the keyword of this year’s economic policy. The province plans to establish a positive feedback structure by improving the competitive power of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to maintain existing jobs and by establishing a good business environment via regulatory reform intended to create new jobs.

Promotion fund of KRW 1 trillion to strengthen competitive power of small and medium-sized enterprises

Gyeonggi Province has provided a promotion fund of KRW 1 trillion for SMEs this year in a bid to solve the problem of insufficient funds, which is one of the biggest difficulties facing the management of such enterprises.

The SME promotion fund will be supplied as a medium-to-long-term low interest loan with a 1 to 8-year repayment period, and as such is expected to be a major boon for companies striving to overcome funding difficulties.

The fund provides support customized to a company’s requirements, including an operation fund designed to secure management stability (including raw material purchasing and labor costs); a facility investment fund designed to help secure facilities, develop technology, and facilitate the growth of early venture foundation companies; a new technology industrialization fund; and a venture business foundation fund designed to enable support for more companies.

In addition, there is a reserve fund for a women’s business foundation, a small business foundation fund to support vulnerable members of society and create jobs, and a special management fund to respond to diverse economic situations including disasters.

Also, the province will continue providing management consulting, human resource training, and foreign marketing support to help exceptional SMEs and experienced companies grow into major global companies during 2012.

The ‘Management Doctor’ project undertaken in collaboration with the Seoul National University Business School is an exemplary case. This project was launched in 2010 to develop superior companies with less than KRW 1 trillion in sales and excluded from government support as global companies. Four or five SMEs based in the province will be selected as beneficiaries of custom consulting in new project strategy development, competitive power improvement, and so on.

◇ A conference to resolve the difficulties facing SMEs was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik on October 31, 2011, in the Ansan Korea Industrial Complex Corps’ western regional headquarters with the participation of executives from central ministries and self-governing bodies including Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo and Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan. ⓒ G News Plus

Also, the Company SOS (Speed One-Stop Solution) support system will provide support for SME activities in 2012 as well. The Company SOS support system, launched in April of 2007, consists of visits to companies to help them resolve their problems including funding, technology, labor, and regulatory difficulties.

The Company SOS support system looks for solutions from the perspective of the companies. The system includes the company SOS net, which shares the processing and follow-up results of company difficulties online with other institutions, and the company SOS support group, which involves the participation of cities and counties of the province and related institutions to actively identify difficulties and promote legal and political improvements.

Gyeonggi Province also plans to support foreign marketing by inviting European and American buyers to export counseling events and by participating in promising exhibitions with the aim of increasing the exports of the province’s major industries including IT, electric, electronic, and vehicle components concurrent with the implementation of the Korea-EU and Korea-US FTA agreements.

In order to identify domestic and foreign sales routes for exceptional SMEs, the province will host G-Fair in Tokyo and Mumbai during April and May and in KINTEX in October. The province will also support companies’ efforts to target foreign countries by dispatching trade promotion groups to promote sales in new foreign markets and by strengthening the network among seven the overseas Gyeonggi Business Centers (GBC).
Furthermore, the province aims to expand its range of support for business foundation in a bid to create more jobs for young people. The G-Business Foundation project aims to create jobs by revitalizing the business foundation among the young, middle-aged, as well as senior citizens. The project provides support worth KRW 3 billion to 230 companies for the production of test products, technologies and consulting, and patent registration for one year.

Moreover, the number of selected‘model businesses’ will be expanded from 237 in 2011 to 700 in 2012. A ‘model business’ is one that contributes to the stabilization of living costs for ordinary people. KRW 35 billion will be invested as support for the foundation of small businesses as well as consulting, education, and management improvement, while a further KRW 7.22 billion will be invested in the construction of four small and medium-sized joint distribution centers.

The province also plans to focus on the revitalization of traditional markets. In particular, KRW 300 million will be invested this year in three markets under the ‘one market, one university’ sisterhood project. A traditional market portal website will be launched in April, and KRW 18.1 billion will be invested to improve the facilities of thirty-one traditional markets.

Preparation for FTAs, economic stabilization for citizens, job creation

“Jobs are the best form of welfare. The priority of the provincial administration in 2012 will be to create more jobs.”

This is what Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo asserted in his New Year’s address. Gyeonggi Province has selected job creation as one of the leading missions for this year’s provincial administration. The province plans to strengthen job creation for the most vulnerable segments of society including women, senior citizens, and the disabled, and to improve customized employment support including job creation for young citizens.

◇ Governor Kim Moon-soo serving as the master of ceremonies at the Gyeonggi Job Forum hosted in the Pangyo Seven Venture Valley of Seongnam City on November 21, 2011, held under the topic of ‘The Software Industry: Is it a repository of jobs for young people?” ⓒG News Plus

First, the public employment project will be expanded to provide jobs for people on low incomes. Gyeonggi Province plans to invest KRW 44.9 billion in funding for its public employment project in 2012 in a drive to create 15,000 new jobs. Participants in the public employment project will take part in the province’s informatization promotion, public productivity, service support, and environmental cleaning projects among others.

Social enterprise promotion support will also be significantly expanded to create jobs for the more vulnerable members of society. The social enterprise special benefit guarantee support system will be operated for the first time in Korea to support a total of KRW 5 billion, with a guarantee limit of KRW 100 million.

In addition, various projects will be undertaken including management of the social enterprise expo interfaced with the small business foundation expo; extension of the city and county social enterprise support centers to 14 city and county (9 facilities); raising labor costs for professional human resources; establishment of a social enterprise promotion public-private consultative body with the participation of 40 to 50 provincial personnel; and ‘one company, one social’ enterprise sisterhood between major companies and social enterprises.

To improve employment opportunities for young people, the Gyeonggi Youth New Deal Project will be implemented at sixteen colleges (ten four-year universities, six two-year colleges) to provide customized employment support for sixteen weeks including close counseling, professional education, employment support, and follow-up management to jobseekers under the age of 30 who live in the province.

The Gyeonggi Youth New Deal Project, which began in 2005, posted a 75.9% employment rate among the program participants in 2010, i.e., 18% higher than the average rate of 56.6% of all colleges in Gyeonggi Province, showing that the program significantly contributes to improving the youth employment rate.

In addition, Gyeonggi Province plans to provide general FTA support in accordance with the implementation of the FTA agreements.

The ‘FTA Response Gyeonggi Province General Support Solution’ was developed to improve the province’s capacity to leverage the FTAs and strengthen the competitive export power of local companies. As such, Gyeonggi Province will develop and implement FTA response assignments in diverse fields, including expansion of the Gyeonggi Province agriculture development fund and implementation of a cattle shed modernization project in the agricultural and livestock field, support for the targeting of foreign markets and the development of new drugs in the pharmaceutical field, and technology support and research center management in the textile field.

◇ Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo participated in the opening ceremony of the Gyeonggi FTA Utilization Support Center held at the Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center in Suwon City on February 22^nd. (Photo) Governor Kim Moon-soo tours the center. ⓒ G-News Plus

In addition, two FTA utilization support centers were opened in the Gwanggyo Techno Valley Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center of Suwon City and KINTEX of Goyang City in February and September of 2011, respectively. These centers will serve as regional footholds to support SMEs. The FTA utilization support centers support all dealings related to the FTA including FTA place of origin education, FTA utilization worker education, FTA-related presentations, FTA consulting, FTA foreign marketing, and FTA professional training.

Revitalization of industrial complexes improves synergy among partner companies

This year, Gyeonggi Province will focus on economic revitalization by stimulating industrial complexes through the solicitation of major companies and their domestic/foreign partner companies, and by establishing an ideal investment environment through the improvement of factory site regulations.

There are 137 industrial complexes covering a total area of 130 million square meters in Gyeonggi Province. This includes four national industrial complexes covering 51,737,000 square meters, 132 general industrial complexes covering 68,243,000 square meters, and one agricultural and industrial complex of 117,000 square meters.

There are also 42 industrial complexes currently under construction consists that will cover a total area of 27.3 million square meters, of which ten complexes covering 1.9 million square meters will be completed in 2012.

Industrial complex establishment of major companies planned in 2010 will see the commencement of construction in 2012. These include the projects of major companies such as Samsung (1.2 million pyeong), LG (820,000 pyeong), KCC (111,000 pyeong), Shinsegae (210,000 pyeong), and Locknlock (56,000 pyeong). [Note; 1 pyeong = 3.3 square meters]

Also, as regulations were adjusted for advanced industries last August with the enactment of the Law on Industrial Cluster Revitalization and Factory Establishment, Praxair Korea and Hyundai Mobis can now expand their factories by 9,000 and 6,000 pyeong in industrial greenbelt and natural greenbelt areas.

Furthermore, Gyeonggi Province plans to undertake various projects to promote company investment invitation – such as custom site support tailored to company demand, management of task force solution conferences among cities, counties, and other related institutions to resolve investment difficulties, and the promotion of early investment by supporting administrative requirements including certification and approval.

Promotion of regulatory reform to improve capital area’s competitive power

As the temporary amelioration of the building-to-land ratio (from 20% to 40% or below) has been extended by two years from last July to July 2013 in an effort to expand the number of existing factories in the natural environment preservation area, economic revitalization including improvement of the business environment and investment promotion received the ‘green light.’

Gyeonggi Province will continue to conduct regulatory reform, including the revision of pertinent laws, in order to ameliorate regulations on natural preservation areas and rationalize regulations on living sites. Cities and counties that fall under natural preservation zoning in accordance with the Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act include the entirety of Icheon City, Gwangju City, Yeoju County, Yangpyeong County, and Gapyeon County, as well as parts of Namyangju City, Yongin City, and Anseong City. The total area amounts to 3,830㎢ within the province.

In order to expand the scale of industrial site establishment (currently 60,000㎡) and the permitted range for the establishment and expansion of advanced factories (currently 1,000㎡) inside natural preservation areas, Gyeonggi Province will promote the revision of the Industrial Cluster Development and Factory Establishment Act, the Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act, and the Water Quality and Ecosystem Conservation Act.

In particular, the revised bill concerning the Water Quality and Ecosystem Conservation Act will allow the construction of factories within natural preservation areas provided that they satisfy environmental standards, thereby contributing to company investment and job creation.

The government initially promised in 2008 that, if the revised bill was passed by the National Assembly, it would expand the scale of industrial site establishment (currently 60,000㎡) and the permitted range for the establishment and expansion of advanced factories (currently 1,000㎡)inside natural preservation areas.

In addition, the province will focus on excluding areas including Yeoncheon from the capital area’s boundary. In Yeoncheon, the civilian-to-soldier population ratio is almost 1:1, and more than 98% of the area lies within the military facility protection zone.

◇ (Photo) Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, and Incheon Mayor Song Young-Gil after adopting a joint proposal to exclude underdeveloped regions such as Ganghwa, Ongjin and Yeoncheon from the capital area at the 6^th Capital Region Development Committee held at the Yeoncheon-gun office on December 8, 2011. ⓒ G-News Plus

In December of 2011, the Metropolitan Development Committee – consisting of Gyeonggi Province, Seoul City, and Incheon City – adopted a joint proposal while demanding the exclusion of underdeveloped regions such as Ganghwa, Ongjin and Yeoncheon from the capital area. In addition, Gyeonggi Province participated with regional members of the National Assembly to consolidate public opinion on the exclusion of Yeoncheon from the capital area, persuade the central government, and form ties of sympathy with non-capital areas.

The province also promoted the rational readjustment of regulated regions in order to resolve resident inconvenience and promote fairness among the regions.

Gyeonggi Province plans to promote readjustment of the boundaries of the natural preservation areas in Danwol and Yangdong-myeon in Yangpyeong County, which are regulated because they are administratively located inside Gyeonggi Province despite sharing proximity in the Han River water system with Gangwon Province. Gyeonggi Province expects that the amelioration of regulations in these regions will provide new opportunities for regional growth including the development of large tourism complexes.

ⓒ G-News Plus News | Lim Jeong-seon isim123@hanmail.net

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