Gyeongbuk Province Supports Small Business Owners with 144 Billion Won Guarantee through 'Buteum Finance'... Agreement with 4 Banks Participating

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Dong-guk] Gyeongbuk Province announced that on the 25th at 2 p.m., it will sign the 'Gyeongbuk Supportive Finance Business Agreement' to overcome the COVID-19 crisis for local small business owners with Daegu Bank, NongHyup Bank, Hana Bank, Kookmin Bank, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and the Gyeongbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation at the provincial government office.

This business agreement mainly aims to support small business owners in the province who are struggling due to the economic downturn by having local financial institutions contribute guarantee funds to expand the scale of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Small Business Owner Development Fund Special Guarantee Project to 200 billion KRW.

Initially, a special guarantee project for small business owners with a scale of 50 billion KRW was implemented this year, but it was exhausted early due to a surge in demand. Since March, Governor Lee Cheol-woo has actively gathered opinions on support measures for small business owners through the 'Happiness Bus Tour,' where he personally visits local areas, leading to the promotion of project expansion.

The guarantee funds contributed by the contracted banks amount to 9.6 billion KRW, enabling guarantee support for loans totaling 144 billion KRW, which is 15 times the contribution. Using this, support of up to 50 million KRW per company for a maximum of five years will be provided.

Most notably, this time, additional limits per company that were not supported by the existing special guarantees and an expansion of beneficiary companies have been granted. The support period is until the funds are exhausted, and companies wishing to apply can do so at the Gyeongbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation headquarters, branches, or contracted financial institutions.

Additionally, the initial budget of 2 billion KRW to support loan interest at 2% for two years (interest subsidy) for small business owners receiving special guarantee loans has been increased to 6 billion KRW in the recent supplementary budget to continue interest subsidy support for small business owners in line with the project scale expansion.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, "The term 'Supportive' in today's agreement means that hope can be expected only by enduring and overcoming difficulties," and added, "I hope today's agreement will serve as a catalyst to revive the local economy."

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