Gwangju City District Mayors' Council Unites to Support Small Business Owners

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The Gwangju Metropolitan City District Mayors' Council (Chairman Moonin, Mayor of Buk-gu) has agreed to support small business owners struggling due to COVID-19.

The Gwangju District Mayors' Council announced on the 20th that on the 17th, the mayors of five districts held a meeting and decided to provide disaster relief funds before Chuseok to facilities that suffered business losses by complying with the strengthened COVID-19 quarantine measure of the assembly ban order.

Each autonomous district secured funds by cutting budgets such as staff travel expenses and event-related expenses despite difficult financial conditions caused by COVID-19.

This disaster relief fund will be provided regardless of whether Gwangju city provides disaster relief funds: 500,000 KRW for high-risk facilities and 300,000 KRW for religious facilities.

The support scale covers 8,686 locations across 18 high-risk facility industries subject to the assembly ban order, with a total support amount of approximately 3.97 billion KRW.

The support targets include high-risk facilities such as entertainment bars, karaoke bars, singing practice rooms, door-to-door sales, PC rooms, etc., registered by permit or report in each district, and religious facilities that suspended operations during the assembly ban administrative order period.

However, businesses that closed or suspended operations before the assembly ban administrative order among high-risk facility industries and those that violated the assembly ban administrative order are excluded.

Applications for support can be made by contacting the representative phone number of each district or referring to the website within the application period, and payments will be made after document verification.

Moonin, Chairman of the Gwangju District Mayors' Council, said, "We deeply thank the business owners who actively complied with the assembly ban order so far, and we hope this disaster relief fund will provide some comfort and help," adding, "For the safety of all of us, citizens should continue to make efforts to observe social distancing and quarantine rules."