An Additional KRW 400 Billion Financial Support for SMEs "Reflecting Field Opinions"

Minister Lee Young Reviews Financial Status of SMEs and Small Business Owners
Requests Cooperation from Financial Sector

On the 12th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the 'Financial Support Committee' at the Korea Federation of Banks. They reviewed the financial difficulties faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners in collaboration with policy financial institutions and banks, and discussed additional financial support measures.

As a result of checking the progress of the 'SME Financial Support Plan' announced last January, it was found that 23.5 trillion won out of the initially planned 55 trillion won in loans and guarantees had been supported. The 'Innovation Venture and Startup Funding Support and Competitiveness Enhancement Plan' is also progressing smoothly.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will promote additional financial support reflecting field opinions. First, the loan scale of the Small and Medium Business Corporation will be expanded to provide an additional 400 billion won. Guarantee supply will also be expanded by establishing a new 30 billion won guarantee exclusively for small manufacturers and broadening the special guarantee support targets for re-entrepreneurs. In addition, to reduce the financial burden, the loan interest rate of the Small and Medium Business Corporation will be lowered by 0.3 percentage points (from 3.2% to 2.9%), and the guarantee fee rate reduction of 0.2 percentage points by regional credit guarantee foundations, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, and Korea Technology Finance Corporation will be extended until the end of the year. A special guarantee of 100 billion won will be allocated exclusively for low-credit and low-income self-employed individuals, with reductions in guarantee fees and interest rates.

Minister Lee Young said, “There are concerns in the field that the maturity extension and repayment deferral will end in September, but the maturity extension has been postponed until September 2025, and repayment deferral can be smoothly managed through long-term installment repayment and debt adjustment via the New Start Fund.” He added, “In the second half of the year, we plan to focus on additional tasks to alleviate financial difficulties.” He also urged, “Banks and policy financial institutions should actively participate with one mind.”