"Emergency Funding Infusion for Small Business Owners Facing Livelihood Cliff ... Must Revive Local Economy"

Seoul City Provides 5 Million KRW for Travel Industry and 20 Million KRW for Culture and Arts
560 Commercial Banks Operate 'Minsheng Innovation Finance Dedicated Counters'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Until COVID-19 is completely eradicated, the top priority of administration is quarantine. However, as economic damage is broadly impacting society, urgent preemptive measures to buffer this are also needed.

Since the 30th of last month, Seoul City has started operating the 'Emergency Economic Countermeasures Task Force' as part of the '2nd Livelihood Economy Measures.' It serves as a control tower that oversees measures to quickly restore the livelihood economy. The goal is to inject emergency funds for small business owners in difficulty and stimulate consumption to breathe new life into the stagnant local economy. Mayor Park Won-soon said, "Under the grand principles of prioritizing support for the most vulnerable groups and eliminating blind spots in disaster relief, we have reflected voices from the field and strengthened the measures."

The city provides employment retention support funds to unpaid leave workers of 'small business owners with fewer than five employees' who do not benefit from the government's 'Employment Retention Support Measures.' This expands employment retention support at the city level to small business owners who inevitably take unpaid leave because paid leave is difficult. For unpaid leave workers of five days or more, up to 500,000 KRW per month is supported for up to two months, totaling a maximum of 1,000,000 KRW. The city also directly supports damages during closure periods for stores visited by confirmed patients, up to 1,950,000 KRW for five days.

Additional emergency management funds have been secured and lent at low interest rates in the 1% range depending on the extent of damage. For micro small business owners with high fixed costs, 'Seoul-type Alleyway Commercial District 119' emergency funds are injected. 1,000 travel agencies, considered the most severely affected, receive 5,000,000 KRW each, and 225 creative performance teams in the cultural and arts sector receive 20,000,000 KRW each.

From the 6th, 'Seoul City Livelihood Innovation Finance Dedicated Counters' will operate at 564 branches of Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank. Mayor Park promises that from consultation application to support, the process will be completed within just ten days to quickly inject funds to small business owners on the brink of closure. To this end, the number of screening personnel has been significantly increased from 195 to about 500. Credit supply for small business owners and self-employed has also expanded from 3.805 trillion KRW to 5.09 trillion KRW.

Mayor Park said, "Seoul City will be a pillar so that everyone can endure and overcome this period well," and added, "We will also proactively prepare for changes across society after the end of COVID-19 by gathering collective intelligence from citizens."