Additional Support for the 'Hope Return Package' for Small Business Owners Restarting Their Businesses

494 Billion KRW Secured in Supplementary Budget
Additional Support for 10,000 Businesses with Store Demolition Costs
and 250 Businesses for Business Restart

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on May 28 that it will issue a notice for the "2025 Hope Return Package (One-Stop Closure Support, Business Restart)," which includes additional support reflecting the 49.4 billion KRW supplementary budget for 2025, as well as support measures for those registered with the Saechulbal Fund public information system. The Hope Return Package is a program designed to ease the burden of closure for small business owners who have closed or are planning to close their businesses, and to support them as a package from closure to re-employment or business restart for a swift recovery.

With this supplementary budget, the Ministry will provide additional support for store demolition costs to 10,000 businesses and for business restart to 250 businesses. Specifically, the store demolition cost support program aims to alleviate the closure burden for small business owners by providing up to 4 million KRW for demolition expenses. The original plan was to support 30,000 businesses, but with the addition of 10,000 more, a total of 40,000 small business establishments will now be eligible. The business restart program targets small business owners facing management crises or who have already closed their businesses, offering big data-based management diagnostics, one-on-one in-depth mentoring by dedicated experts, and up to 20 million KRW in business commercialization funds. Through this additional announcement, 250 small business establishments will be recruited for support.

In addition, through the announcement of the "Business Restart (Re-Entrepreneurship) Saechulbal Fund Linked Support," 100 small business establishments will be recruited. Eligible applicants are small business owners registered with public information (Saechulbal Fund debt adjustment information), who have previously found it difficult to participate in business restart programs due to restrictions on financial transactions. Participants will receive management diagnostics and one-on-one dedicated expert support, as in the existing business restart program, and up to 10 million KRW in business commercialization funds. Small business owners who successfully complete the program can submit their certificate of completion to the Saechulbal Fund, and their registered debt adjustment information will be immediately lifted.

Hwang Youngho, head of the Small Business Management Stability Support Group, said, "We hope that this additional support and the support for public information registrants will provide a foundation for small business owners who have not previously benefited to overcome crises and make a stable new start."