COVID-19 and Heavy Rain Damage Companies Supported by Ministry of SMEs and Startups through 'Proactive Administration'

Support for Small Business Owners and Self-Employed, Fostering Non-Face-to-Face Ventures and Startups, Export Support for SMEs
Strengthening Internal Training, Enrolling All Employees in Liability Insurance, and Expanding Proactive Administration

Last month, the traditional market in Gurye suffered significant damage due to heavy rain. However, many small business owners were unregistered, making government support difficult. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) revised the operational standards of the 'Disaster SME Special Guarantee' to allow companies that registered their business after the disaster date to receive support if their 'business commencement date' was before the disaster occurred. Additionally, a dedicated problem solver was assigned to each damaged store to support small business owners without any blind spots.

On the 10th, the Ministry shared the status of the '2020 Proactive Administration' implementation, including these key successful cases, with other ministries at a vice-ministerial meeting. The Ministry is actively administering policies in areas such as funding and exports to support SMEs and small business owners struggling due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Especially this year, it has set key action tasks including support for small business owners and self-employed individuals, fostering non-face-to-face ventures and startups, and supporting SME exports, systematically promoting proactive administration by establishing dedicated organizations.

Along with support for unregistered small business owners affected by the heavy rain, the Ministry highlighted rapid financial support for SMEs and small business owners impacted by COVID-19 as a major proactive administration case. Due to a surge in applications for small business management stabilization funds caused by COVID-19, which delayed fund disbursement, the Ministry introduced a '10 million KRW emergency loan system' targeting low-credit and micro self-employed individuals to drastically shorten processing times. It also simplified document submission by linking and querying company information held by the National Tax Service and the National Health Insurance Service online, improving the policy fund processing procedures. Furthermore, amid the urgent need to revitalize domestic demand due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, the Ministry became the first government department to implement advance payments and launched the 'Good Advance Payment National Campaign' to spread this practice to the private sector.

Minister Park Young-sun

Looking at the main initiatives of the proactive administration action tasks, the Ministry is actively promoting policy financial support to stabilize the management of small business owners and self-employed individuals affected by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. It plans to focus on supporting the digitalization of small business owners through online channel entry support and the dissemination of smart store workshop technologies. To prepare for the post-COVID era and foster 'non-face-to-face venture startups,' the Ministry established the Non-Face-to-Face Economy Division last May. It supports preferential guarantees for promising companies, youth employment in digital fields, service voucher payments to promote remote work, and the establishment of video conference rooms. Additionally, as overseas demand for K-Bio products such as diagnostic kits has surged, the Ministry simplified the Brand K designation process and linked it with export support policies. It also plans to expand online export consultation meetings in the second half of the year to assist export SMEs struggling due to COVID-19.

Moreover, the Ministry operates an education and communication program led by the Minister and Vice Minister for all employees to share innovation philosophy, vision, and work know-how. It also enrolls all employees in liability insurance that covers litigation costs arising from proactive administration, demonstrating efforts on multiple fronts. Yoon Young-seop, the Ministry’s Innovation Administration Officer, stated, "Since many people are facing difficulties due to COVID-19, we will continue to strive to produce tangible results that the public can feel through relentless proactive administration and work innovation."

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