Press

Iksan City, SK E&S, and Underdogs to Support Youth Entrepreneurship They plan to select 20 young entrepreneurs and provide up to 40 million won in business funds and startup education. This is reporter Yoon Hyun-seok's report. [VCR] Iksan City, which has experienced the largest population decline in the province with approximately 18,000 people leaving over the past three and a half years of the 7th democratic administration. The primary cause of population decline was revealed to be the exodus of people in their 20s and 30s due to job shortages. Iksan City is implementing the 'With Local' project together with SK E&S, a global energy company, and Underdogs, a startup education institution. They support youth entrepreneurship to prevent the outflow of young people in their 20s and 30s and enable them to settle in the region. The With Local project is a program that selects 20 young entrepreneurs and provides up to 40 million won in business funds for prototype development and startup education. The city and SK E&S have secured a total of 1 billion won, and Underdogs will provide education and specialized programs. [INT: Lee Seul-gi, Underdogs Local Business Team] "Nurturing entrepreneurs in Iksan is the most important project. We include educational courses that help teams in the preliminary and early startup stages grow to the next level through business funds and item advancement." The 'Localizing Gunsan' project in Gunsan influenced the birth of the With Local project. The city says it has added Iksan's unique character to the With Local project. Unlike Localizing Gunsan, which focuses on revitalizing the original downtown area, when selecting participants for the project, the city will focus on evaluating solutions to Iksan's current issues and creation of regional value, and plans to select entrepreneurs in specialized industrial fields such as hologram and ICT services. [INT: Lee Bo-wook, Director of Iksan City Youth Center] "By discovering items related to Iksan's current issues such as odor problems and population outflow, as well as items capable of creating regional value, we expect to achieve not only a virtuous cycle in the startup ecosystem but also prevent population outflow and enable stable startup settlement for young entrepreneurs in the region." The newly established youth entrepreneurship program in Iksan City, With Local. Attention is being paid to whether it will be evaluated as a success story in youth entrepreneurship support like 'Localizing Gunsan.' This is KCN's Yoon Hyun-seok.