Government and Economic Ministers' Meeting
Focused Support for 100 Promising SMEs
Detailed Scale-up Program Plan Established
Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is delivering opening remarks at the Economic Ministers' Meeting held on the 7th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance, announced on the 7th that the central government and local governments will jointly provide 1.2 trillion won in liquidity swiftly to support affected companies struggling due to not receiving sales proceeds from the TMON and WEMAKEPRICE (Timep) incident.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi made this announcement during the Economic Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office on the same day regarding additional response measures to the Timep incident. He stated, "We have prepared measures to provide stronger support for damages caused by the Timep incident and to prevent further harm." Specifically, he said, "Starting today, loan maturities for affected companies will be extended up to one year, and from the 9th, applications for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' emergency management stabilization funds and financial programs from the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and Industrial Bank of Korea will begin." He added, "We will complete the consumer refund process for general products within this week."
He also presented directions for institutional improvements to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "We will introduce shorter settlement periods for e-commerce and electronic payment gateway (PG) companies than those for large-scale distributors and establish an obligation to separately manage sales proceeds." He added, "We will finalize detailed plans within this month after gathering opinions from experts and the industry and submit amendments to the Large-Scale Distribution Business Act and the Electronic Financial Transactions Act to the National Assembly as soon as possible."
Regarding the comprehensive measures for small business owners announced last month, he conveyed, "From the 9th, the requirements for applying for low-interest refinancing loans will be significantly eased, and from the 16th, applications for extending the repayment period of small business policy funds will begin." He also emphasized plans to expand the support targets for the New Start Fund from next month and to fully reflect programs such as the ‘Small Business Specialized Employment Support Program’ in next year’s budget.
The government is supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into mid-sized companies based on the 'Corporate Growth Ladder Establishment Plan' announced in June. As part of this effort, a scale-up program has been developed to intensively nurture 100 promising SMEs by involving private investment firms and retired executives from major companies as growth experts, and by providing a package of open vouchers, policy finance, and technology development support.
During the meeting, plans to promote collaborative budgeting were also discussed. Deputy Prime Minister Choi explained, "Next year’s budget will significantly strengthen inter-ministerial collaboration so that related ministries, rather than individual ministries, will solve problems together." He added, "Even if the lead ministries differ, we will closely link preceding and subsequent projects and actively operate multi-ministry joint projects when necessary."
First, to attract foreign talent, the government plans to survey employment and settlement intentions from the visa application stage and provide linked support for Korean language education, vocational training, and job matching. To enhance the quality of Official Development Assistance (ODA), the government is considering expanding both grant and loan ODA into multi-ministry cooperative projects based on field demand, and linking these efforts to promising company market entry and industrial workforce development.
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