3-Year Low-Interest Loan of 300 Billion KRW for Smart Factory Advancement

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 28th that it signed a financial support business agreement for the advancement and activation of smart factories with the Small and Medium Business Technology Information Promotion Agency, the Technopark Promotion Association, and Hana Bank at Hana Bank located in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul.

According to the agreement, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected the private sector Hana Bank as the dedicated bank to concentrate funds (about 400 billion KRW annually) for the smart factory distribution and expansion project.

The dedicated bank will prepare a preferential low-interest loan product to support smart factories and related businesses with a total of 300 billion KRW (100 billion KRW annually) over the next three years. Through this, related companies can borrow up to 4 billion KRW in facility and working capital loans at a preferential interest rate 1.8 percentage points lower than that for general companies.

The support targets a total of 16,594 companies that have introduced or are in the process of building smart factories. Companies participating in ‘Process Innovation R&D’ for smart reshoring will also be included.

The dedicated bank will also provide various business management consulting supports such as promotion, sales channels, import/export, and investment attraction of smart factory products by utilizing its own personnel and financial infrastructure, as well as support for various fee reductions.

Jo Juhyun, head of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Planning Group at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “The government recently announced the ‘AI·Data-based SME Manufacturing Innovation Advancement Strategy,’ a blueprint to advance smart factories centered on artificial intelligence by establishing a data-based platform as a follow-up measure to the Korean New Deal.” He added, “It is expected to be a great help like rain to ease the investment burden of companies by supporting funds related to smart factory advancement at low interest rates in cooperation with the private sector in response to this government policy.”

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