Lee Nak-yeon on Small Business Owners' Day: "Ensure Smooth Passage of Legislation and Budget for Small Businesses in the Regular National Assembly"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated on the 5th, "We will ensure the smooth passage of legislation and budget for small business owners during the regular National Assembly session."

Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader, Han Jeong-ae, chair of the Policy Committee, Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Kim Kyung-bae, chairman of the Korea Regional Economy Revitalization Association, Ha Hyun-soo, chairman of the National Merchants Federation, and other key attendees are posing before the start of the meeting of the Economic Headquarters of the National Crisis Overcoming K-New Deal Committee held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

On the occasion of Small Business Owners Day, Lee held a meeting of the Economic Headquarters of the 'National Crisis Overcome K-New Deal Committee' at the National Assembly in the morning and said, "Next year's budget has been submitted to the National Assembly and is entering the review stage. At such a time, I want to encourage small business owners on their day, but at the same time, I cannot help but feel a heavy heart."

He explained the purpose of the meeting by saying, "We arranged this discussion to consider what effective support measures could be, taking into full account the related circumstances." He also added, "Events like the Korea Sale Festa are being held, but it is difficult to say that they provide decisive help to small business owners."

Regarding the simplified entry measures to China being limited to large corporations, Lee said, "Two or three days ago, I met with Xing Haiming, the Chinese Ambassador to Korea, at this place. China has implemented simplified entry procedures for Korean large corporations, but not yet for small and medium-sized enterprises or small business owners. The reason given is COVID-19." He emphasized, "Nevertheless, I requested the ambassador to simplify the entry procedures for SMEs and small business owners, and the ambassador responded that he would inform the government and try to make it happen," stressing efforts to simplify the procedures.

Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the Democratic Party, also said at the meeting, "One of the goals of this regular National Assembly session is the recovery of people’s livelihoods, and we are promoting bills and budgets for small business owners." He added, "We will amend the Local Commercial District Coexistence Act to prevent displacement within commercial districts and revise the Franchise Business Act to provide stronger protection for franchise business owners."

Kim also stated, "We plan to do our best in legislative support for small business owners, including enacting the Small Business Protection Act to protect small business owners in order to introduce a simple payment system." He added, "In the budget review, we will carefully manage budgets that provide practical help to small business owners, including the budget for issuing local love gift certificates."

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, who attended the meeting, said, "Regarding financial support for small business owners, the first phase of 16 trillion won has been disbursed, and currently, 4 trillion won out of the second phase budget of 10 trillion won has been supplied. The New Hope Fund has also been paid to about 2.4 million people, totaling approximately 3.3 trillion won." She stated, "Having experienced COVID-19, I believe the focus now should be on the digitalization of small business owners." Park added, "In October, the first unmanned supermarket, Smart Super, opened and received a very positive response. We plan to distribute 100,000 smart stores by 2025." She continued, "The Korea Sale Festa is currently underway, and the Christmas Market is being prepared by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups as part of efforts to revitalize domestic consumption. We also plan to hold a small business owners’ competition during this time."

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