Ministry of the Interior and Safety Provides National Funding Support for 'Low-Interest Loans for Small Business Owners' to 21 Local Governments

6 Billion KRW National Budget Invested to Provide Low-Interest Loans for Small Business Owners Affected by COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 19th that it will promptly inject 615 million KRW of national funds into 21 local governments to help small business owners who are experiencing economic difficulties due to the damage caused by COVID-19.

From May to August, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety held a public contest for the Regional Small Business Hope Loan Support Project targeting local governments nationwide and, after expert review, finally selected 21 local governments across the country.

This Regional Small Business Hope Loan Support Project is an expansion nationwide of the "1% Hope Loan" case introduced last year by Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, which received great response. Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, supported a total of 4.7 billion KRW to 648 small business owners in four rounds from June 2020 to March 2021.

The Regional Small Business Hope Loan Support Project is a program where the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and financial institutions cooperate to provide livelihood funds at interest rates about 0.5 to 1% lower than the market rate to low-credit and low-income small business owners. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety provides operating funds, and local governments decide eligibility requirements, loan limits, interest rates, and repayment methods according to local conditions to promptly provide loan funds within the year.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to focus on small loans in cooperation with local governments to ensure that as many small business owners as possible can receive financial support benefits. The Ministry expects that this Regional Small Business Hope Loan Support Project will provide practical help to local small business owners who are suffering double hardships due to difficulties in store operations caused by COVID-19 and being unable to pass bank thresholds due to low credit.

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said, "Amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, many small business owners are experiencing management difficulties, and we expect that this project will help financially marginalized small business owners stabilize their management," adding, "We will actively support more small business owners to overcome the COVID-19 economic crisis early and become self-reliant."

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