SK E&S

“Dreaming to become Malmo of Korea”
SK E&S Kicked Off A Urban Regeneration Project to Create Social Values
 

- Established Silicon Valley of Korea for social ventures in old downtown of Gunsan of Jeonbuk Province
- Selected 24 social ventures to explore ideas to boost the local economy and create jobs
- “Will turn Gunsan into Malmo of Korea and a hub for local regenerating startups”
 
 
SK E&S (CEO and President Yu Jeong-Joon), a green energy company, established a hub for social ventures in Gunsan of Jeonbuk Province to promote urban regeneration.
 
The project named 『Localize Gunsan』 is designed to transform Gunsan City into a cultural and tourist hub and contribute to creating local jobs. It is the first time in Korea for a private company to lead a local regeneration project by fostering social ventures for itself. 
 
The company announced on March 18 that it kicked off its project for urban regeneration in the city’s well-known old downtown, Younghwa-dong, with establishment of an incubating office to grow young entrepreneurs of social ventures. Earlier in January, SK E&S met with city officials and local residents in a session to inform them of what Localize Gunsan intends to achieve and identify major pending issues of the city. Following the meeting, the energy provider held an information session and a pre-training camp in February to select potential social entrepreneurs who will be part of the project.
 
The social ventures the company chose consist of 70 people and 24 teams. 11 out of the teams will be engaged in the ‘Incubating’ program coming up with new business ideas that best meet the needs of Gunsan while the other 13 teams will be on the ‘Accelerating’ program identifying ideas to build on existing business models and expanding them locally. The social ventures will operate in the hub SK E&S built for a year and plan to find new business models for tourism business specific to the city, branding of local specialties and development of media content to promote Gunsan.
 
Young business people who have already started up their own business in the city will be also invited to the project to create synergy effects with the social ventures.
 
For ideas identified by the social ventures to be implemented, SK E&S will provide the them with one on one coaching service through Underdogs, a social innovation startup builder.
 
Gunsan is a leading port city that used to be the economic and financial center of Jeonbuk Province. Traces of Japanese colonial rules and modernization in Korea still remain intact there, making the city highly valuable in terms of legacy tourism. Despite the values, the local manufacturing industry continued to struggle for the past few years and the struggle has led to significant slowdown of the local economy. Especially, GM Daewoo’s plant shutdown in the city last year prompted outflow of the city population.  
 
SK E&S has been conducting city gas business in Jeonbuk Province and decided to model after Malmo of Switzerland to transform Gunsan. The third largest city in Switzerland is well-known for the so-called Tears of Malmo which refers to the large crane symbolizing the country’s shipbuilding industry sold off to Hyundai Heavy Industries for a mere $1. As one of the country’s leading industries collapsed, tens of thousands of local people lost their jobs and the Swedish city declined to the point it was called city of death. But, Malmo has become recognized as one of the success stories that achieved urban regeneration and job creation by supporting and boosting local startups.
 
SK E&S plans to revitalize Gunsan by using rich local history and legacy as well as the existing commercial areas to increase inbound tourists and create jobs. By transforming the industrial city into one of Korea’s leading cultural spots and tourist destinations, the company hopes to help turn the city into Malmo of Korea.    
 
In addition, the energy provider shared its blueprint about collaboration with affiliates of SK Group to produce more substantial results from the project. The group’s affiliates including HappyNarae, which is a social enterprise for public good, plan to provide their business capabilities to enhance social values.
 
As the affiliates’ support indicates, Localize Gunsan is aligned with increasing social values that Chairman of SK Group, Chey Tae-won, emphasizes constantly. In other words, the project aims to contribute to solving social issues of Gunsan by nurturing local social ventures and regain jobs the city lost to slow economy instead of simply making traditional short-term social contributions focusing on donations.
 
Kim Gi-young, Director of Social Values in SK E&S, said, “As the company does local energy business across the country, it has an obligation to grow together with local communities and create social values.” He added, “Starting with Gunsan, SK E&S will strive to pay keen attention to local social issues and explore innovative projects tailored to the cities.”

[Photo] SK E&S announced on March 18 that it established a hub for young social ventures in Younghwa-dong in Gunsan of Jeonbuk Province to start carrying out an urban regeneration project. The photo shows young entrepreneurs of the social ventures participating in the entrance ceremony of Localize Gunsan’s hub office.