The Seoul Metropolitan Government has helped a total of 438 young people in their 20s and 30s to start‐up their own businesses through a special employment project since June 2009. Over 1,700 young people found jobs through the project, the metropolitan government said.

One of the top policy priorities for the government this year is to raise the level of employment and all local governments are preparing plans to contribute to this policy.

A total of 271 people, including Cabinet ministers, local government heads, professors and experts on labor issues gathered on Mar. 4 for the third national employment strategy meeting presided over by the President.

At the meeting exemplary cases of employment increase in each region were presented by the local government heads. An extended session to discuss employment plans for the year followed.

Gyeonggi Provincial government recently opened a job center with the aim of increasing employment in the region.

Since February, Gyeonggi Province has been running a “one stop” job provision center which gathers over 200 employment information resources spread out at different social service organizations in the province.

Jangheung County in South Jeolla Province said its fishing villagers in February established a laver‐farming corporation, creating 240 new jobs. The central government plans to give full support to these types of regional job‐launching projects, while injecting 17.6 billion won of government funds by December.

The local government offices plan to do their best to increase employment in their respective regions by developing province‐specific plans, such as building recyclable energy plants, eco‐tourism attractions or newer tourism spots. It was decided at the meeting that they will also increase the number of job fairs to be held in their regions and improve tax‐breaks for local companies which record comparatively higher employment.