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Mayor Park Heong-joon: “Commerce Meets Childcare” — Opening of a Joint Workplace Childcare Center for SMEs on Gwangbok-ro, Jung-gu

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will officially open “Heim Daycare Center (33 Gwangbok-ro, Jung-gu),” a joint workplace childcare center for SMEs, at 10:30 a.m. today (25th) on Gwangbok-ro in Jung-gu to help address childcare challenges faced by employees of SMEs and self-employed small business owners.

Heim Daycare Center is a joint workplace childcare facility established with FGK Co., Ltd. (Leejaemo Pizza), a well-known Busan pizza restaurant located on Gwangbok-ro in Jung-gu, serving as the lead company, along with three nearby SMEs: Lee Seunghak Donkatsu, Jagalchi Saemaeul Geumgo, and Pilgrims.

The center has been established on the fifth floor of Leejaemo Pizza’s Gwangbok 2nd Branch, with a total floor area of 431.44 square meters, and will provide childcare services for up to 37 children of employees from participating companies.

The facility includes five age-specific childcare rooms on a single floor and is equipped with media equipment that supports sensory development, play areas, and a variety of educational materials and teaching aids comparable to those found in children’s cafés.

Previously, in May 2025, following consulting support from the City, four SMEs located on Gwangbok-ro, including FGK Co., Ltd. (Leejaemo Pizza), formed a consortium and were ultimately selected for the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service’s public offering project for installation cost support for joint workplace childcare centers for SMEs.

Under this selection, the consortium will receive KRW 900 million in national funding from the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service for facility conversion costs, as well as support for labor and operational expenses.

Busan Metropolitan City will separately provide KRW 100 million to cover corporate installation contributions. In addition, starting in March this year, the City plans to allocate an additional KRW 70 million in operational support for weekend and holiday childcare through the “Busan-style 365 Open-Hours Daycare Center” program, funded by the Local Extinction Response Fund.

The Busan-style 365 Open-Hours Daycare Center is a program in which daycare centers serve as hubs to provide temporary childcare on weekends and public holidays not only for enrolled children but also for children of nearby self-employed small business owners.

In the future, Heim Daycare Center is expected to serve as a workplace-based childcare hub in service-oriented and small business-dense areas such as Gwangbok-ro, responding to diverse childcare needs of small business owners, eliminating blind spots in care services, and enhancing the sustainability of local commercial districts.

Meanwhile, since 2016, the City has worked to ease the burden of childbirth and childcare for workers in industrial complexes and areas with a high concentration of SMEs and to promote a culture of work-life balance. As part of the 8th popularly elected administration’s pledges, the City has expanded joint workplace childcare centers for SMEs, and currently seven such centers are in operation.

As of the end of February this year, the seven centers in operation are Noksan Sandan Bareun Daycare Center, Centum Gaon Daycare Center, Jeonggwan Industrial Complex Joint Workplace Daycare Center, Busan Hana Financial Group Joint Workplace Daycare Center, Myeongji Daycare Center, Gijang Fire Station Joint Workplace Daycare Center, and Heim Daycare Center.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “The opening of this joint workplace childcare center is expected to provide working conditions that allow employees to focus on their jobs while helping companies build a positive image, thereby contributing to the realization of a ‘15-Minute City Busan’ where work and family life coexist.” He added, “We will continue to do our utmost to ease the burden of childcare costs, including free childcare, in order to create ‘a Busan that is good for raising children’ and ‘a Busan that is good for working.’”