Gibo, Customized Support for Gwangju Cultural Content Companies Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Gwangju Metropolitan City, Gwangju Jeonnam Small and Medium Business Administration, and Gwangju Bank Sign Business Agreement

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Chairman Jung Yoon-mo, hereinafter Kibo) announced on the 7th that it signed a "Customized Support Business Agreement for Gwangju Metropolitan City Cultural Content Companies to Overcome COVID-19" with Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Lee Yong-seop), Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration (Administrator Lee Hyun-jo), and Gwangju Bank (President Song Jong-wook) at Gwangju City Hall.

This agreement is significant in that it established a customized support collaboration model for local cultural content companies struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic by linking the main projects of each institution, such as corporate consulting, technology guarantee support, financial cost support, and market development support.

According to the agreement, Kibo will provide technology guarantees through guarantee fee reductions, venture and Inno-Biz company certification, and technology transfer to cultural content companies located in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Gwangju Metropolitan City will discover companies through corporate consulting, Gwangju-Jeonnam Small and Medium Business Administration will support market development and export, and Gwangju Bank will reduce financial burdens by supporting guarantee fees.

Since September 2009, Kibo has played a pioneering role in the growth of content companies by introducing the "Cultural Industry Completion Guarantee System," which evaluates intangible technologies and projects and supports content production guarantees. It has established Cultural Content Finance Centers, dedicated branches for the cultural industry, in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Busan, supporting 1361 projects with 750.5 billion KRW over more than 10 years until November this year. In 2021, it plans to expand the support scale of the Cultural Industry Completion Guarantee to 135 billion KRW by additionally establishing the Daejeon Cultural Content Finance Center.

Chairman Jung Yoon-mo of Kibo said, "This business agreement will contribute not only to overcoming the COVID-19 crisis but also to revitalizing the Gwangju regional economy, including creating good jobs." He added, "We hope to develop this into a customized collaboration system that promotes structural changes in the regional economy, such as the Gwangju-type job project and the AI cluster being promoted in Gwangju Metropolitan City."

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