On the 21st, Oh Youngju, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups, visited the glocal commercial district creation site around Hanok Village and Wedding Street in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, to listen to the voices from the field and encourage small business owners.
The Jeonju glocal commercial district project is a support initiative aimed at revitalizing the alley commercial district that connects Hanok Village, Wedding Street, and Gaekridang-gil. The creation team includes local creators and various innovative entities in the region, such as Krypton, Mumeung Cine Cooperative, Rose Pani, and the Joyful City Research Institute.
They plan to commercialize Jeonju's unique local content together with local small business owners, allowing foreign tourists visiting Hanok Village to also visit Wedding Street and Gaekridang-gil.
The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups and Jeonju City plan to nurture small businesses into anchor stores that embody the region's identity through this project, aiming to prevent gentrification.
Before the meeting, Minister Oh toured the Jeonju Hanok Village commercial district and listened to examples of honey products entering the Japanese market at Walkerbee, a specialty honey brand shop. During the meeting, they discussed efforts, changes, and challenges faced over the past year to grow the glocal commercial district with representatives from Krypton and others, and deliberated on the future direction.
Afterward, Minister Oh visited local creator efforts at the representative declining commercial district of Jeonju, including a goods and perfume edit shop called Mystery Mansion and a renovated complex cultural space known as Geumseongdang, encouraging their work to transform old local spaces into distinctive venues.
Minister Oh noted, 'The glocal commercial district nurturing project is a model for gradual urban growth centered on small businesses and alley commercial districts, fostering small businesses as anchor stores and connecting them with various local entities.' She added that the project aims to suggest and allow local residents and tourists to experience a unique lifestyle, growing small business brands to enhance the local economy and develop a glocal commercial district that attracts people from around the world.