Kim Dong-yeon Visits Suwon Restaurant: "Working Hard to Support Small Business Owners and Self-Employed"

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon visited small business owners struggling due to the economic downturn to listen to their difficulties and promised continuous attention and support measures for small business owners and self-employed individuals.

On the 20th at noon, Governor Kim visited a restaurant located in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon City, ordered bibim-guksu for lunch, and had a conversation with the owner.

The owner said, "I am using Gyeonggi Province's special guarantee for extended debt repayment for small business owners and the Small Business Owner HimnaeGO Card," and shared concerns, saying, "Since the martial law was declared recently, the country's situation has become unstable, and after 8 p.m., no one is out."

Governor Kim said, "Gyeonggi Province is making the greatest efforts to help small business owners and self-employed individuals," adding, "The most important thing is that the economy must recover, and seeing people living so hard today makes me feel that we need to work even harder."

In December last year, after the declaration of martial law, under Governor Kim's directive, Gyeonggi Province established the ‘Gyeonggi Emergency Livelihood Economy Council,’ a public-private joint organization involving related departments, public institutions, small business owners, traditional markets, tourism associations, and small and medium enterprises, actively working on field-centered livelihood economy recovery measures.

In particular, the province launched the ‘Small Business Owner HimnaeGO Card,’ the first of its kind nationwide, which is a dedicated card for operating expenses for small and medium enterprises and small business owners.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon is ordering food at a restaurant in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon on the 20th. Provided by Gyeonggi Province

This card can be used for essential operating expenses such as material costs and utility bills up to 5 million KRW with zero interest for 6 months over a maximum of 5 years, and also offers up to 500,000 KRW cashback and tax deduction benefits.

Gyeonggi Province allocated 15 billion KRW in this year's budget and has been supplying a total of 150 billion KRW to 30,000 people since January 6.

Additionally, to support the smooth loan transition and reduce debt repayment burdens for small business owners with low credit, a special guarantee for extended debt repayment worth 300 billion KRW is being implemented for small business owners with medium to low credit.

Support of up to 100 million KRW per business is provided to small business owners with a credit score of 839 or below (formerly grade 4) who use the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation guarantee certificate, with a 3-year grace period for principal repayment, followed by monthly principal repayments over 3 years (3 years grace, 3 years installment repayment) by converting the loan.

Furthermore, a 100 billion KRW scale refinancing fund support is underway to convert existing high-interest loans to low-interest loans, easing the repayment burden for small business owners.