New Hope Fund, Good Prepayment, and Other Excellent Cases of Proactive Administration by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Four cases including the New Hope Fund for small business owners struggling due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), rapid financial support for small business owners, and prepayment for consumption promotion and domestic demand revitalization were selected as the best proactive administrative cases by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2020.

On the 24th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held this year's proactive administration excellence competition online to encourage employees who have worked hard for rapid COVID-19 response.

Among the cases submitted from headquarters and local offices, 20 excellent cases were selected through a first round of document screening, a second round of online presentations, and electronic voting by private members of the Proactive Administration Committee and all employees of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Looking at the excellent cases, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups established the first-ever special support fund exclusively for small business owners, the ‘Small Business New Hope Fund,’ which provides direct cash support to small business owners suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak this year. Using administrative information, recipients were pre-selected in advance, and the first simple support fund was promoted through a non-face-to-face service without separate documents. Support began before Chuseok, and about 2.5 trillion KRW was paid to approximately 2.3 million people.

Also, as applications for small business management stabilization funds surged due to COVID-19, causing delays in fund disbursement, the Ministry introduced a ‘10 million KRW emergency loan system’ for low-credit and small self-employed individuals, significantly shortening processing times. By linking company information held by the National Tax Service and the National Health Insurance Service online for inquiry, submission documents were simplified, greatly improving the processing procedures for policy funds.

In response to the sharp increase in guarantee demand due to COVID-19, small business guarantee applications were processed quickly by minimizing on-site inspections, implementing rapid review systems, handling up to 10 times the average monthly guarantee volume, and shortening processing periods from the existing 20 days to 1-2 days at most.

In a situation where domestic demand revitalization is urgently needed due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, the Ministry utilized the proactive administration support system to implement prepayment for the first time among government ministries, creating an opportunity for prepayment to spread to the public sector. This contributed to consumption promotion through the participation of many celebrities, general public, private companies, and public institutions.

Outstanding proactive administration employees will be awarded ministerial citations, prize money, highest grade performance bonuses, special promotions, promotion points, and overseas benchmarking opportunities according to their grade.