Yun Hojung "Next Year's Budget 608 Trillion... Support for Small Businesses and COVID-19 Prevention"

Yoon Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 30th and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Yoon Ho-jung, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on the 2nd regarding next year's budget, "We prioritized expanding support for small business owners and COVID-19 quarantine budgets sufficiently, based on the judgment that the difficulties faced by small business owners have not yet been resolved."

At the National Assembly members' meeting that afternoon, Floor Leader Yoon explained, "The part we paid special attention to in this budget is the support for small business owners requested by candidate Lee Jae-myung and the members."

The Democratic Party's revised budget bill, which will be unilaterally submitted and processed at the plenary session that day, amounts to 607.7 trillion won, an increase of 3.3 trillion won from the government's submitted proposal of 604.4 trillion won. It was initially revised to 607.9 trillion won, but was reduced by about 200 billion won due to minor adjustments during negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties.

Regarding compensation for losses of small business owners, Floor Leader Yoon self-assessed, "What we wanted was to raise it up to 1 million won, but although we did not reach that level, being able to raise it to at least half that amount, 500,000 won, is a very significant achievement."

He continued, "It is also quite meaningful that support measures for small business owners amounting to about 68 trillion won, nearly 70 trillion won, have been prepared, including low-interest loan financial support of approximately 35.8 trillion won and local currency support of 30 trillion won."

He added, "We tried our best to reach an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties, but due to a single disagreement over the light aircraft carrier project, the ruling and opposition parties could not agree on all matters, and this revised bill will not be jointly submitted by both parties."