[Digital Today reporter Ji-young Lee] Hana Financial Group is moving to support the recovery of local commercial districts, focusing on young small merchants.

Hana Financial on June 23 signed a business agreement with the Korea Small Business Market Corporation on support for revitalising commercial districts for young small merchants. It said on June 24 it will 추진 the "Hana On, Youth On" project.

The two sides will identify and foster about 4,000 small-merchant businesses in 60 local commercial districts nationwide over four years from this year through 2029. Key areas of cooperation include capacity-building training for small merchants, support for revitalising commercial districts and integrated promotion that spreads results.

Hana Financial plans to secure a total of 5 billion won over four years to build a youth-led model for revitalising commercial districts.

The capacity-building training will include online courses on digital capabilities, customer management and data use, and business operations. It will also include offline courses on policy and commercial-district understanding, sales strategies, and cooperation and joint projects.

It will also 추진 a commercial-district revitalisation programme in which young small merchants plan and carry out joint projects by district. Support targets are young small merchants aged 49 and under. It will select 14 general teams made up of at least 5 small merchants in a local commercial district and 1 specialised team organised with at least 30 small merchants in a nationwide regional commercial district.

It will provide up to 50 million won per team for the general type and 150 million won for the specialised type as commercial-district revitalisation funds.

Support will also include on-the-job coaching such as consulting to strengthen sales techniques, production of online and offline promotional content, and district branding. Hana Financial plans to link the entire process, from recruiting participants to generating results, into content for promotion, and also manage the actual revitalisation effects in the commercial districts.

Young-joo Ham (함영주), chairman of Hana Financial, said the goal is to invigorate local commercial districts by fostering young small merchants and to create sustainable local commercial districts led by young small merchants.