All In to Revitalize the Local Economy
Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam announced on the 24th that it will implement the 2025 first half support measures for small business owners and self-employed early to respond to the unstable political situation and weakened consumer sentiment at the end of the year.
This policy focuses on promoting local consumption, alleviating financial burdens, and improving the business environment to stimulate the regional economy and help stabilize the management of small business owners.
◆ Promotion of Local Consumption: Issuance of 30 billion KRW Nubi-jeon
Changwon City will promote local consumption through Nubi-jeon. First, in the first half of next year, it will issue Nubi-jeon worth 30 billion KRW, with a total issuance planned at 70 billion KRW. Especially ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, 5 billion KRW in paper gift certificates and 10 billion KRW in mobile gift certificates will be issued, encouraging citizens' consumption with a 7% discount rate and a personal purchase limit of 200,000 KRW.
For small business owners, this is expected to play an important role in revitalizing the local commercial district by enabling increased sales without payment commission fees. Additionally, 170 million KRW will be provided to support good-price businesses for expenses such as water and sewage fees and volume-based waste bag costs.
◆ Alleviation of Financial Burden: Expansion of 45 billion KRW Small Business Development Fund
Changwon City will expand the loan scale of the Small Business Development Fund to 45 billion KRW, initially implementing 30 billion KRW in the first half. Small business owners with workplaces in Changwon who have received a credit guarantee certificate from the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation will receive interest support at an annual rate of 2.5% for up to 50 million KRW. This is expected to be an important opportunity for small business owners to stabilize management amid consumption contraction caused by prolonged high inflation and high interest rates.
Furthermore, the city plans to strengthen the social safety net for small business owners through the Yellow Umbrella Hope Incentive support. To this end, 293 million KRW will be invested to provide subsidies to about 2,000 small business owners.
◆ Improvement of Business Environment: Support of 520 million KRW for Small-scale Shops
Changwon City will also work on improving the environment of small-scale shops. Up to 20 million KRW will be provided for 10 aging small-scale shops to improve shared facilities such as electricity, gas, and fire safety. Additionally, about 100 small business owners will receive support for outdoor signboard replacement, interior renovation, and safety system maintenance to stabilize their business environment.
To respond to the digital economy, 110 million KRW will be allocated to support the digitalization of small business owners, providing consulting for their digital transformation and online market entry.
◆ 2024 Small Business Support Achievements
In 2024, Changwon City actively implemented small business support policies by investing 9.6 billion KRW. Through this, it guaranteed 30 billion KRW in small business development funds, helping 976 businesses overcome financial difficulties, and issued 69.1 billion KRW worth of Nubi-jeon to promote local consumption. It also achieved improvements in small-scale shop environments and digital transformation support, enhancing the management conditions of small business owners.
◆ Emergency Injection of 4.6 billion KRW Year-end Reserve Fund
To overcome the year-end economic downturn and weakened consumer sentiment, Changwon City urgently injected 4.6 billion KRW from the reserve fund to additionally support 15 billion KRW in small business development funds. Moreover, it issued an additional 30 billion KRW worth of Nubi-jeon, raising the discount rate to 10% and expanding the per-person purchase limit to 300,000 KRW to encourage consumer participation.
◆ Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City: “The difficulties of small business owners are a crisis for the regional economy”
Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, said, “Small business owners in our region are not only economic agents but also the roots of the local community,” adding, “We prepared this support measure with the urgency that their difficulties could lead to a crisis in the regional economy.” He emphasized, “We will carefully take care so that not a single small business owner is left out and do our best to revive the vitality of the regional economy.”
Meanwhile, Changwon City expects this support policy to provide practical help to local small business owners and self-employed individuals and to serve as an important stepping stone for the stability and growth of the regional economy.
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