SK Specialty's efforts to revitalize the local economy by activating traditional markets and increasing farm income in Yeongju City are bearing fruit, with young people moving to Yeongju City and the annual sales of related social ventures increasing by 26.4%.

On the 30th, SK Specialty held 'STAXX Panorama' to share the results of the 'STAXX Project', which seeks to build a startup ecosystem and revitalize the local economy in Yeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

About 100 people attended the event, including Yeongju Mayor Park Nam-seo, Gyeongbuk Province Local Government Policy Bureau Director Jeong Seong-hyeon, SK Specialty CEO Lee Gyu-won, and social venture officials.

At the event, Gyeongsangbuk-do and Yeongju-si congratulated the achievements of the STAXX project and awarded certificates of commendation to SK Specialty and Impact Square.

Additionally, Gyeongbuk Province awarded the Scale-Up Excellence Company Award to social venture KOF (Korea Fisheries Research and Development Institute), and Yeongju City awarded the Scale-Deep Excellence Company Award to Pinozen.

In addition, a demo day was held prior to the event to attract investment for social ventures and an exhibition containing the growth story of the past three years was also held.

'STAXX The 'Project' is a regional revitalization program launched in December 2021 in cooperation with Gyeongsangbuk-do, Yeongju-si, and Impact Square (a social venture incubation specialist company) to solve economic and social problems that Yeongju-si, where SK Specialty's business site is located, is experiencing amid the crisis of local extinction.

The goal is to discover and foster 10 social ventures that utilize local infrastructure such as Yeongju agricultural products and tourism resources, thereby revitalizing the local economy.

At the 'STAXX Panorama' held on this day at the Seonbi World Han Music Hall in Yeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, the economic and social value created by the project over the past three years was analyzed and the future direction of the project's development was explored.

The annual sales of the 10 social ventures increased by 26.4% from KRW 2.27 billion in 2022 to KRW 2.87 billion in 2023, creating visible results in a short period of time.

Last year, in addition to the investment of KRW 2.8 billion from the 'Gyeongbuk Youth Dream Impact Fund' established by SK Specialty and Gyeongsangbuk-do, social ventures directly attracted KRW 2.18 billion in follow-up investment, thereby laying the foundation for sustainable growth.

Social ventures have also had a positive impact on the local economy over the past three years. It contributed to increasing local residents' income by 280 million won through purchasing local agricultural products and hiring local residents, and created a related population of approximately 2,200 people, including tourists.

The move of about 30 young people to Yeongju has injected new vitality into the local economy.

SK Specialty donated 5 billion won for this project and, together with Impact Square, focused on discovering and nurturing social ventures, educating entrepreneurs and creating networks, and establishing a hub for exchange.

In addition, SK held monthly consultations with Yeongju City to listen to the difficulties faced by social ventures and then supported the growth of social ventures by utilizing each city’s capabilities and resources.

With this support, social ventures have created results that improve issues facing Yeongju City, such as revitalizing traditional markets, attracting tourists, increasing farm income, and solving the problem of empty houses.

Representative examples include 'Liquor Square', which developed local specialty liquors and revitalized traditional markets on the brink of extinction; 'Blank', which remodeled empty houses into lodging spaces; 'Backpackers Planet', which introduced a camping program using an unused campsite in Mt. Sobaeksan; and 'Vinest' and 'Dicant', which developed health functional beverages and cosmetics using local agricultural products.

As these achievements became known to the public, the STAXX project received attention as a representative domestic program for regional revitalization.

SK Group affiliates and several local governments visited Yeongju for benchmarking, and Yeongju was selected as the second most preferred city for youth entrepreneurship in Seoul’s youth entrepreneurship program, ‘Next Local.’

In addition, as Yeongju was selected as the city to implement the 'BETTER-RI' project, a tourism verification project promoted by the Korea Tourism Organization, young entrepreneurs flocked to Yeongju.

Lee Kyu-won SK Specialty The CEO said, “Meaningful changes are sprouting in Yeongju as a result of cooperation between companies and local governments based on mutual trust,” and “We will do our best to make STAXX a representative local revitalization program in Korea that solves local pain points and seeks a path to coexistence.”

Yeongju Mayor Park Nam-seo said, “Through the STAXX project, new hope and vitality can be felt throughout the region,” and added, “Yeongju City and SK will continue to communicate and cooperate closely in the future to create a successful model for overcoming the crisis of local extinction.”