Gyeonggi-do Expands 'COVID-19' Special Fund Significantly to 200 Billion Won

[Asia Economy (Uijeongbu) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has significantly expanded support funds for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the new 'Coronavirus Disease 2019' (COVID-19) from the previous 70 billion KRW to 200 billion KRW, nearly tripling the amount.

On the 6th, Gyeonggi Province announced support measures providing 50 billion KRW and 20 billion KRW respectively to small business owners and SMEs affected by COVID-19. As a result of accepting applications starting from the 12th, the province announced on the 16th that SME funding applications exceeded the support scale (20 billion KRW) within two days, and it urgently decided to allocate an additional 130 billion KRW.

Over the two days from the 12th to the 13th, the application volume was 62 cases totaling 20.3 billion KRW for SMEs, and 18 cases totaling 860 million KRW for small business owners.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung said regarding the additional support, "The fact that applications exceeded the support scale within two days clearly shows that our economy is experiencing considerable difficulties due to instability in the Chinese economy, our top trading partner, as well as production disruptions, restrictions on economic activities, and consumption downturns among SMEs in the province," and promised, "We will continue to proactively, swiftly, and accurately devise additional measures."

The funding targets are SMEs and small business owners in the province who have suffered direct or indirect damage from COVID-19. SMEs can receive up to 500 million KRW per company, and small business owners up to 100 million KRW.

SMEs will be supported after verifying direct and indirect export/import damages related to China.

The loan interest rate can be used at 1.5% per annum lower for SMEs and 2% per annum lower for small business owners than bank rates, thanks to interest subsidy support from the Gyeonggi Province Development Fund.

SMEs and small business owners wishing to apply can visit and consult at dedicated counters at 23 branches of the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation (1577-5900) or apply online through the Gyeonggi Province SME Development Fund website (g-money.gg.go.kr).

The province will also actively promote the existing 850 billion KRW scale credit guarantee support by the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.

Separately, the province proposed to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 14th to significantly expand the existing funding support measures (totaling 250 billion KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.