276 Billion Won Support for Closed Small Businesses... "Store Demolition and Business Closure Consulting"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 13th that it will expand the 'Support Project for Closed Small Business Stores' to prepare for the spread of damage to small business owners caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

This project provides support for costs necessary for store demolition and restoration to original condition for small business owners who have closed (or plan to close) their stores, as well as professional consulting in tax, labor, legal affairs, lease settlement, and credit management needed for business closure. The support limit is 2 million KRW for store demolition costs and 1.8 million KRW for business closure consulting, executed through the Small Enterprise and Market Service, an institution under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

This project has been introduced since 2017 to support the resolution of difficulties faced by small business owners. This year, the original budget was 11.2 billion KRW to support 11,000 stores (2,000 for demolition costs, 9,000 for business closure consulting). However, by securing an additional supplementary budget of 16.4 billion KRW, the total budget has been expanded to 27.6 billion KRW to support 19,200 stores (10,200 for demolition costs, 9,000 for business closure consulting).

The additionally secured supplementary budget will be focused on supporting small business owners’ closed stores in COVID-19 special disaster areas (Daegu Metropolitan City, Gyeongbuk Gyeongsan City, Cheongdo County, Bonghwa County). The supplementary budget of 16.4 billion KRW will support 8,200 stores.

In particular, to expedite execution, the existing on-site verification process for closed stores has been replaced with an online process, reducing the support processing period to 10 days. The application methods have also been diversified to include online applications through the Small Enterprise and Market Service’s Hope Return Package website and telephone applications through the Small Enterprise and Market Service’s Restart Support Office. This plan aims to facilitate easy application even for small business owners who have difficulty using or accessing the internet.

Kwon Daesu, Director of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "In response to the spread of COVID-19, we have significantly expanded the scale of support for closed stores to alleviate the burden on small business owners and enable rapid recovery. We will minimize inconvenience to small business owners during the execution process and provide support quickly and smoothly."

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