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Busan Metropolitan City Launches All-Out Drive to Expand Purchases of Local Products, Kick-Starting a Virtuous Cycle in the Local Economy

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will hold the “2026 Report Meeting on Measures to Expand Purchases of Local Products” at 10:00 a.m. today (the 27th) in the City Hall Grand Conference Room, chaired by Mayor Park Heong-joon.

The meeting has been organized to share practical measures to expand the purchase of local products in Busan. Participants will include major departments of Busan Metropolitan City, deputy heads of districts and counties, the City Office of Education, government public institutions, heads of public corporations, economic organizations, and representatives from various associations.

At the meeting, three key focus areas will be presented under the goal of “establishing a virtuous cycle structure in the local economy through the promotion of local product purchases”: strengthening public-sector purchasing, expanding private-sector participation, and building a cooperative system.

[Strengthening Public-Sector Purchasing]
The City aims to drive economic recovery by expanding contract awards to local companies. The public sector will actively utilize public procurement target management and regionally restricted contract systems, prioritizing the expansion of contracts awarded to local companies. As a general rule, local companies will be given priority in private contracts, and projects eligible for regionally restricted competitive bidding will be implemented entirely under regional restriction schemes. In addition, the City plans to continuously expand the participation of local companies by strengthening mandatory joint contracting requirements for regional firms.

For privately financed projects and privately ordered construction works, the City will systematically refine preferential policies for local companies—through measures such as expanding the division of large-scale projects into separate contracts, enacting and revising ordinances, and improving guidelines—with the aim of raising subcontracting ratios for local companies to 70 percent or higher. At the same time, the City will conduct monthly reviews of purchasing performance and enhance overall execution capacity across the public sector by combining employee training with expanded incentive programs.

[Expanding Private-Sector Participation]
The City will encourage private-sector participation by offering tangible incentives. Companies with outstanding local subcontracting performance will be provided with substantive benefits, including preferential floor area ratios, shortened permitting and approval procedures, higher interest-rate subsidies for policy loans, preferential loan and guarantee terms, and deferrals of tax audits.

In addition, the City will systematically manage and share information on local companies with excellent technologies, and support the expansion of market access through measures such as providing information on construction tenders, offering training for entry into the public procurement market, and supporting designation as innovative products by the Public Procurement Service.

[Building a Cooperative System]
Busan Metropolitan City plans to establish a cooperative framework involving the City, public institutions, related organizations, associations, and the financial sector to serve as a control tower for revitalizing the purchase of local products. Through public-private cooperative governance in which both public and private sectors participate, the City will also promote the establishment of a sustainable culture of purchasing local products.

The City will further spread a favorable atmosphere for purchasing local products by operating a “Local Product Purchase Week,” creating permanent “Local Product Purchase Zones,” and promoting events linked to various activities. Through collaboration with local media and civic groups, the City also plans to raise public awareness of the importance of purchasing local products and foster a culture of voluntary participation.

Using this report meeting as a momentum, Busan Metropolitan City will further strengthen public-private cooperation to expand purchases of local products and plans to hold a promotional “boom-up” event in February to spread a favorable climate for giving preference to local companies. The City will also continue to enhance policy effectiveness by conducting monthly reviews of local product purchasing performance and local subcontracting ratios.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “Expanding purchases of local products is a critical economic policy that goes beyond simple consumption to drive the growth of local companies and create jobs,” adding, “I ask all institutions and organizations to act with a strong sense of responsibility and work together so that a purchasing culture led by the public sector and shared by the private sector can truly take hold.”