Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 15.2488 Trillion Won Budget Confirmed for Next Year... "Overcoming Small Business Crisis"

Supporting Small Business Owners and Self-Employed for 'Overcoming Crisis and New Beginnings'
Backing SMEs, Ventures, and Startups for 'Global Leap and Innovative Growth'

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups' total expenditure for the 2025 budget and fund operation plan was approved and finalized at 15.2488 trillion won, an increase of 299.1 billion won compared to this year's main budget, at the National Assembly plenary session on the 10th.

The Ministry announced on the same day that through the 2025 budget, it plans to support the crisis recovery and new start of 7.66 million small business owners and self-employed individuals, and back the global leap and innovative growth of 8.04 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ventures, and startups.

Among the five key investment directions of the budget, the Ministry cited first the crisis recovery of small business owners and self-employed individuals and the revitalization of traditional markets and neighborhood commercial districts. To ease the management burden on small business owners struggling with high inflation and high interest rates, it will provide temporary support for delivery and courier fees, expand policy fund loans for small business owners with weak credit, and strengthen financial support such as extending repayment periods at commercial banks.

Additionally, the Ministry will expand the Hope Return Package project, which provides one-stop support from business closure to reemployment and re-startup, to firmly support the new start of small business owners in crisis. It will also establish new projects linked with private platforms to enhance the digital capabilities of small business owners. Expanding the issuance of Onnuri gift certificates and launching regional commercial district revitalization projects involving private sectors, local governments, and the government to create traditional markets and neighborhood commercial districts with active consumer spending are also major directions.

To intensively nurture deep-tech startups leading innovation, specialized support for startups in artificial intelligence (AI) and fabless sectors will be newly established. Through advanced open innovation, connectivity between large corporations and deep-tech startups will be strengthened, and the cultivation of global unicorn companies in the deep-tech field will be promoted. The budget for the mother fund, which attracts private capital into the innovation ecosystem, has been expanded, and SME R&D support, which has so far focused on expanding the base, will be increased toward national strategic technologies and global cooperation to strengthen the growth engine of innovative startups.

Tech service exports, emerging as a future export sector, will be newly supported. New growth engines for exports will also be secured by expanding scale-up financing exclusively for export SMEs. The construction of a global startup hub, where deep-tech startups reside and global big tech companies and talents gather, will begin next year, accelerating the realization of 'Startup Korea' by expanding collaboration areas with global companies.

Budget will also be used to expand autonomous voucher support for regional SMEs and establish regional specialized R&D support to make regional innovative companies key players in revitalizing the regional economy. Support for smart factory advancement has been expanded for digital manufacturing innovation, and three additional regional manufacturing AI centers will be added next year to support productivity improvement of manufacturing SMEs based on AI.

To systematically support the scale-up of promising SMEs aspiring to become mid-sized companies, a new Jump-up program will be established to help SMEs' future leap. New joint public-private win-win cooperation support will be created to encourage the spread of co-growth between large and mid-sized companies and SMEs, and supply chain-linked policy funds (Co-growth Network Loan) will also be expanded to create sustainable partnerships.

The Ministry emphasized that it will carefully oversee the overall implementation of projects for 2025 aimed at crisis recovery for small business owners and self-employed individuals and future leaps for SMEs, ventures, and startups, concentrating all policy capabilities on rapid fiscal execution so that our economy can quickly recover vitality and dynamism in people’s livelihoods.