The ruling party and government to provide disaster relief funds to closed small business owners... Criteria and amounts under discussion

Up to 2 Million Won Provided to High-Risk Facilities Suspended Due to Social Distancing Measures

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is conversing with participants at the High-level Party-Government Council held on the 6th at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Jongno-gu, Seoul. From the right: Lee Nak-yeon, Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea; Prime Minister Chung; Kim Tae-nyeon, Floor Leader; Han Jeong-ae, Chair of the Policy Committee; Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] The Democratic Party of Korea and the government have decided to provide a second round of disaster relief funds to small business owners who went out of business due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the 8th, a policy committee official from the Democratic Party stated, "We have decided to support small business owners who closed due to COVID-19," adding, "The support targets small business owners who closed after the outbreak of COVID-19, and detailed matters such as the timing of closure and the amount of support will be finalized at the emergency economic meeting on the 10th."

For high-risk facilities such as karaoke rooms, buffets, and PC rooms, which had to suspend operations due to social distancing measures, the second disaster relief fund of up to 2 million KRW will be provided without requiring proof of sales decline such as card sales records. A policy committee official said, "For high-risk facilities that suspended operations, support will be provided uniformly regardless of card sales performance." Self-employed individuals who are not in high-risk facilities, such as regular restaurants, are also expected to receive support funds of around 1 million KRW.

There are calls for support to be extended to entertainment bars and karaoke bars, which were excluded from the second disaster relief fund, as well as to self-employed individuals who started new businesses this year. Regarding this, a Democratic Party policy committee official said, "Since the second disaster relief fund will be selectively distributed, there needs to be a national consensus, so it seems difficult to provide support funds to entertainment establishments," adding, "For new entrepreneurs, we are separately estimating the timing and scale of damage to consider support." According to the party and government, up to 2 million small business owners are expected to benefit from this second emergency disaster relief fund, with a budget requirement of 3 trillion KRW.

Meanwhile, the party and government plan to provide emergency employment stabilization funds of 500,000 KRW per month for up to four months to special-type workers such as after-school teachers, learning material instructors, and door-to-door salespeople. To simplify the payment process, those who received the first round of support will be exempt from submitting documents. Previously, the government allocated a budget of around 1 trillion KRW to support low-income groups in blind spots such as daily workers and irregular workers who have difficulty proving income. This includes emergency living expenses for low-income groups (1 trillion KRW), support for communication fees to activate non-face-to-face services, and support for care-deprived groups.

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