Social Enterprise International Forum held... Sharing solutions to local problems through public-private cooperation

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency announced on the 10th that they held the '2026 Social Enterprise International Forum' at COEX Magok in Seoul.

The theme of this forum is ‘How are social enterprises becoming essential infrastructure in the community: New horizons for adult social enterprises?’

The forum began with a video keynote lecture by Amal Shubro, head of the Social Economy and Innovation Team at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Team leader Shubro emphasized that the question facing each country today is not how to grow the economy, but how communities can be resilient in the face of crisis, and that the social and solidarity economy can be an important axis of the solution.

In the first session, we looked at domestic cases of building local living infrastructure based on residents' participation and solidarity under the theme of 'Connecting people, saving the region.'

Experiences were shared by the Household Medical Welfare Social Cooperative, where residents work together to create a local medical and care model, and the Dream Whale Social Cooperative, which has worked together to solve the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families as a community task.

The second session highlighted domestic and international cases of solving regional problems by combining public and private resources under the theme of 'Connecting Resources, Expanding Horizons'.

Taiwan's Nine Floor Coliving, which operates public housing for youth using idle public assets, and Hong Kong's The Project Futureus, which has created an inclusive dining environment for seniors with swallowing disorders, introduced their projects.

Minister of Labor Kim Young-hoon said in a video congratulatory address, "Social enterprises are growing as a core foundation that connects people and resources and supports local communities in essential areas of life such as medical care and care," and added, "The government will also actively support social enterprises so that they can take deep root in the community and continue to grow."

Jeong Seung-guk, director of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, said, "Social enterprises, which have celebrated 19 years since the enforcement of the Social Enterprise Promotion Act in 2007, are now at the threshold of adulthood in terms of the age of the system."