Gyeonggi-do Provides Emergency Funding of 5.2 Trillion Won to SMEs and Small Business Owners Affected by COVID-19

[Asia Economy (Uijeongbu) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will urgently inject a total of 5.2 trillion KRW through special management funds and expanded special guarantees, as well as early write-off of non-performing loans, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners in the province who have suffered economic damage due to COVID-19.

First, the province will expand the 'COVID-19 Special Management Fund' from 200 billion KRW to 1.12 trillion KRW, an increase of 920 billion KRW. This amount corresponds to 56% of this year's 2 trillion KRW SME development fund. It means that all available funds, except for 800 billion KRW in facility funds, have been converted into COVID-19 special funds.

The province had previously increased the COVID special support fund from 70 billion KRW to 200 billion KRW.

The support amounts for SMEs and small business owners have also been expanded up to eight times, from the original 150 billion KRW and 50 billion KRW to 520 billion KRW and 400 billion KRW, respectively. Additionally, 200 billion KRW has been urgently allocated as a reserve to actively respond to the rapidly changing economic environment.

The support targets are SMEs and small business owners in the province who have suffered direct or indirect damage due to COVID-19. The support amount is up to 500 million KRW per SME and up to 100 million KRW per small business owner.

The province will also expand the scale of special guarantees through the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation from the existing 3.11 trillion KRW by 920 billion KRW to 4.03 trillion KRW.

In addition, considering the difficult economic conditions caused by COVID-19, the province decided to advance the timing of the write-off of non-performing loans by the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation from June to this month’s 13th, about two months earlier. Through this, 3,088 debtors were able to write off bonds worth 44.1 billion KRW and quickly recover.

Kim Gyu-sik, Director of Economic Planning for the province, said, "With this measure, we expect to provide stable financial support to SMEs and small business owners affected by COVID-19, thereby revitalizing the local economy in the province." He added, "We will continue to devise swift and accurate measures to minimize economic damage."

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