Employees of Samsung Display demonstrate purchasing Lunar New Year gifts on the company's online mall in this undated handout photo. Courtesy of Samsung Display

Employees at 17 of Samsung's affiliates are stepping up efforts to boost the domestic economy by purchasing agricultural and fishery products from affiliated small businesses through their respective online employee malls ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on Jan. 29 this year.

According to the conglomerate, Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Life Insurance and 13 other Samsung companies are now running special shopping programs for the holiday.

These programs are affiliated with small businesses and farmers in rural areas, enabling employees to purchase local specialties such as agricultural, livestock and fishery products, as well as products from smart factories supported by Samsung Electronics.

This year's Lunar New Year shopping program features more than 60 businesses running smart factories, offering products including red ginseng extract, dried seaweed and rice cakes. These smart factories were powered by Samsung Electronics' automation technologies.

"It's convenient to purchase gifts for the Lunar New Year through the online mall," a Samsung Electronics employee said. "The mall helps you find unique regional specialties that aren't commonly available, and it's also meaningful because it helps support local economies."

For small businesses, the shopping program provides an opportunity to secure a valuable sales channel targeting a large customer base, as Samsung Electronics alone has more than 120,000 employees in Korea, currently.

Since 2011, Samsung companies have been running special shopping programs for Lunar New Year and Chuseok, the nation's two major national holidays.

The total amount spent by employees through special shopping programs during last year's Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays stood at 2.8 billion won ($1.93 million), contributing to expanding sales channels and increasing revenue for rural areas and small businesses.

Along with the shopping program, Samsung announced its affiliates' plan to make early payments worth 560 billion won to partner companies, three weeks ahead of schedule, to help partner companies avoid financial difficulties before the holiday.

Since 2011, major Samsung companies have been making payments to partner companies three to four times a month to assist vendors in their supply chains.

A total of 11 companies will participate in the early payment program for this year's Lunar New Year, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, Samsung SDI, Samsung SDS and Cheil Worldwide.

Mutual growth

Samsung said it will continue making various efforts to establish a healthy industrial ecosystem to enable mutual growth with domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Through the smart factory program, Samsung Electronics has been supporting more than 3,200 SMEs since 2015, transferring manufacturing know-how, providing unused patents for free, training workforces and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Also, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display established a fund for partner firms worth 1 trillion won to help domestic partners overcome financial burdens in their efforts to incorporate environmental, social and corporate governance values in their management.

By depositing a combined 1 trillion won in five major banks, Samsung Electronics enables SME partners to access loans of up to 2 billion won for up to three years without interest.

"Going forward, Samsung plans to operate various support programs to facilitate sustainable mutual growth with its partner companies," a Samsung official said.