Jeonbuk Province Accelerates Support for Small Businesses with Jeonbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Jeonbuk Province announced on the 17th that it will establish and operate a rapid support system together with Jeonbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation (hereinafter Jeonbuk Shinbo) to accelerate the execution speed of special guarantees for small business owners in the province who are experiencing management difficulties due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

This support system entrusts tasks such as guarantee applications to commercial banks, reducing the processing time from nearly a month to within two weeks, and if certain conditions are met, proceeds without on-site inspections, aiming to avoid missing the golden time to support small business owners struggling with financial difficulties.

According to Jeonbuk Shinbo, inquiries about small business guarantees, which were usually less than 70 cases per day, have exceeded 700 cases per day since the outbreak of COVID-19, currently reaching about 10,000 consultations and approximately 300 billion KRW in funding applications, showing a continuous flow of small business owners.

Due to more than ten times the usual number of people gathering at once, waiting times have lengthened and loan execution has been delayed, causing already desperate small business owners to suffer as financial support is not provided in a timely manner.

Jeonbuk Province and Jeonbuk Shinbo have introduced drastic measures with the goal of supporting small business owners with funds at more than twice the speed to overcome this situation.

First, among the guarantee consultation, document submission, on-site investigation, guarantee review, and guarantee contract tasks previously handled by Jeonbuk Shinbo, the guarantee application, document submission, and guarantee contract tasks will be entrusted to nine commercial banks. This is to reduce the excessive workload and focus on loan execution.

The entrusted banks are NongHyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Kookmin Bank, Suhyup Bank, SC First Bank, and Jeonbuk Bank, and they started operations on the 16th.

Also, except for cases where the business period is less than one year, credit rating is 7 or below (low credit), or the application amount exceeds 50 million KRW, the process will proceed without on-site inspections.

In addition, Jeonbuk Shinbo urgently hired 15 short-term personnel, approved a special 62-hour workweek plan, and decided to exclude the additional labor costs incurred from the total labor cost calculation.

Jeonbuk Province is focusing not only on the speed of support but also on increasing the scale so that more substantial benefits can reach a greater number of small business owners.

To respond to the increasing demand for funds due to the spread of COVID-19, Jeonbuk Province urgently injected a total of 265 billion KRW in ultra-low interest special guarantees, including 125 billion KRW of provincial funds.

This effort aims to support as many small business owners hit hard by COVID-19 as possible to help them overcome the current situation.

Na Seok-hoon, head of the Job and Economy Headquarters of Jeonbuk Province, said, “We have prepared drastic measures with a scale and speed that small business owners and others can feel in response to COVID-19, which seriously threatens not only the health of the local community but also the economy. We will make all-out efforts to ensure that the local economy and small business owners can recover as quickly as possible through timely financial support by boldly increasing the processing speed of special guarantees.”

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