Assemblyman Song Gap-seok, Gwangju Region Business Stability Fund Support Ranks Lowest for 5 Consecutive Years

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The Small Enterprise and Market Service (SEMAS) has been supporting management stabilization funds for small businesses with fewer than five regular employees, but it has been revealed that there are extreme regional disparities in the distribution of these funds.

In particular, financial support for Gwangju Metropolitan City has been at the lowest level for five consecutive years.

According to the "Status of Small Business Management Stabilization Fund Support by Each City and Province" submitted by SEMAS to National Assembly member Song Gap-seok (Democratic Party, Gwangju Seo-gu Gap), Gwangju received a total of 182.8 billion KRW in support from 2015 to 2019.

This is the smallest budget scale except for Incheon, Sejong, Ulsan, and Jeju. It accounts for only 3.6% of the total support amount of 5.03 trillion KRW.

Rep. Song said, "The regional disparity in support for small business management stabilization funds is so large that the survival foundation of small business owners in Gwangju, who lack collateral, is shaking," adding, "To establish a self-reliance foundation for local small business owners who have been shaken to the core by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the regional support ratio of management stabilization funds must be increased."

He continued, "Strengthening regional competitiveness for national balanced development requires government support," and stated, "The government should strengthen the competitiveness of local small business owners through institutional reforms, such as applying regional weighting to various support systems including small business management stabilization funds."

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