본문 바로가기

Issue/WT Notices

[Sep. 28, 2011] WT Newsletter #3 - Korean Social Enterprises News 2. The Seoul City Government Designates 35 ‘Seoul-type Social Enterprises’


[Korean Social Enterprises News]


2. The Seoul Metropolitan Government Designates 35 ‘Seoul-type Social Enterprises’


Newspim 2011.09.28

http://www.newspim.com/view.jsp?newsId=20110928000215

[Newspim] Ju-Eun CHOI Reporter


The Seoul Metropolitan Government has recruited and selected 35 ‘Seoul-type Social Enterprises,’ which provide social services or jobs for the vulnerable class, on September 28, 2011. They announced that they would create 247 jobs by providing support for the personnel expenses of these enterprises.


The government reported that 236 enterprises submitted applications, but only 35 enterprises passed the criteria. This created a high competition rate of 6.7:1. In terms of fields, ‘health and child care’ had the highest competition rate of 10:1, ‘culture and physical training’ had a competition rate of 8.1:1, and ‘social welfare’ had a 4.2:1 competition rate.When categorizing the social goals of the selected enterprises, 57.2% are ‘to provide a workplace,’ 5.7% cited ‘mixed goals’, and another 5.7% were classified as "other."


The ‘Seoul-type Social Enterprise’ is a type of preliminary social enterprise, which is a bit below the requirements of the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s social enterprise standards, but has high possibilities in regard to the specific realization of social goals and producing a profit.


The government provides various forms of support in the finance, management, and promotion areas, so that selected enterprises can develop as social enterprises. Personnel expenses are provided (100% for the first year, and 60% for the second year) at a rate of 980,000 won per person (including 8.5% of the business owners’ social insurance fee), and 1.5 million won per specialist The social enterprises will also be provided with consultancy services from experts in the fields of finance, promotion and personnel management, which are essential for managing a business


The business owners are helped by teaching them to understand the core value of social enterprises and encouraging them to develop as management specialist through the CEO Academy. Also, in regard to business management funds, except for investments in equipment, the enterprises are provided with the opportunity to get a loan of 2 to 3% a year under interest preservation conditions. Business development expenses for website production and product development are also provided, with a maximum of 20 million won.


Director of the Economy Promotion Headquarters Myeon-Ho SIN said, “It has been more than two years since the ‘Seoul Social Enterprise’ supporting program was launched, and now we not only need the quantitative development of social enterprises, but also need qualitative development which can guarantee the transparency and responsibility of the enterprises.” He also said that, “We will actively hunt, and promote outstanding social enterprises and make them respectful and solid enterprises. In the meantime, we will thoroughly inspect and instruct the enterprises that are weak and cannot yet take on the role of social enterprise.”



Translated: by Yea-Bin HONG

Edited: by Patrick Ferraro