[Exclusive] KODIT to Launch Preferential Guarantees for Advanced Industry Firms... "Strengthening Productive Finance"

2026 Work Plan

The Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) is introducing a preferential guarantee system for companies operating in advanced strategic industries such as artificial intelligence (AI). The fund will also launch a program that offers favorable guarantee terms for deep tech companies for up to eight years. Having been selected as a leading AI institution among public financial organizations last year, KODIT aims to further strengthen productive finance.

According to the office of Lee Jeongmoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, KODIT submitted its "2026 Work Plan" to the Financial Services Commission, which includes these initiatives. This year, KODIT will introduce the "AI Advanced Industry Preferential Guarantee" (tentative name) system. The main objective is to enable companies in these industries to secure timely funding at lower financial costs. The total program size is 2 trillion won.

KODIT plans to expand the supply scale by combining government contributions with its own resources and to provide the highest level of preferential benefits. Eligible recipients include companies in the ABCDEF industries (AI, bio, cultural content, defense and aerospace, energy, manufacturing) and strategic technology industries (semiconductors, secondary batteries) as defined by the National Advanced Strategic Industries Act. For these companies, the guarantee fee rate will be reduced by up to 0.7 percentage points, and the guarantee coverage ratio will be set at 95%. The guarantee limit is 1 billion won for working capital and 20 billion won for facility funds.

A guarantee program specifically for deep tech companies will also be introduced. The "Deep Tech Customized Guarantee Program" (tentative name) has been designed to support stable access to funds for up to eight years, taking into account the long development and commercialization periods typical of deep tech fields. The current support, which provides up to 1 billion won for a maximum of three years, will be expanded to up to 7 billion won for a maximum of eight years.

KODIT will operate guarantee programs tailored to the three stages of technology development (R&D), commercialization, and initial scaling up. For example, in the R&D stage, up to 2 billion won will be provided for two years; in the commercialization stage, up to 4 billion won for three years (based on credit limits); and in the initial scaling-up stage, up to 7 billion won will be available.

This year, KODIT also plans to establish support systems specialized for different regions. To foster future strategic industries that represent each region, preferential guarantees will be provided to sectors designated as growth engine industries by mega-regions (such as the Southeast and Honam regions). The selection of growth engine industries will be overseen by the Presidential Committee for Balanced National Development this year.

Additionally, to offer region-specific financial services, KODIT will establish "regional specialized financial hubs." For example, in the Southeast region, a new Busan Marine Finance Hub will be created. Furthermore, KODIT will introduce a special provision system for distressed companies, which will defer insolvency processing and support normalization for businesses facing temporary management crises due to disasters or accidents.

Meanwhile, KODIT has set its total credit guarantee supply for this year at 76.5 trillion won, with the core policy supply amounting to 61 trillion won. These figures represent increases of 900 billion won and 2 trillion won, respectively. Of the total credit guarantee supply, the crisis response special guarantee, established in May last year to address U.S. tariff measures and similar issues, will be operated at a scale of 2.6 trillion won. In the core policy guarantee supply, the existing new growth engine sector will be reorganized into future strategic industries, including the ABCDEF sectors, and the supply plan will be increased by 500 billion won.