Daejeon City Urgently Injects 173 Billion KRW to Support Small Business Owners' Daily Recovery

Daejeon Mayor Heo Tae-jeong is announcing the 'Daejeon-style Small Business Support Special Measures' at City Hall on the 18th. Photo by Daejeon City

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is investing an emergency budget of 173 billion KRW to support the daily recovery of local small business owners.

On the 18th, the city announced that it will implement the "Daejeon-type Small Business Support Special Measures" from November to December. The special measures will be carried out in four areas: ▲crisis overcoming ▲recovery support ▲economic vitality ▲innovative growth, aimed at helping small business owners gradually return to normal life.

First, to help small business owners struggling due to prolonged social distancing, the city will provide a budget of 70 billion KRW under the name of "Special Support Fund for Daily Recovery." This budget will be used for all self-employed and small business owners whose sales have decreased, including those industries that were subject to gathering bans and business restrictions due to strengthened distancing measures. The city expects about 95,000 businesses to receive support funds.

However, the support funds will be distributed differentially: 2 million KRW for businesses that were subject to gathering bans after July 8, 1 million KRW for those under business (time) restrictions, and 500,000 KRW for businesses in general industries with decreased sales.

The city plans to send advance notification texts on the 16th of next month so that small business owners included in the support target can apply without submitting separate documents.

Additionally, starting rapid payments on the 17th of next month, the city will simultaneously process confirmation payments for self-employed and small business owners not included in the rapid payment target, ensuring that applications are completed by the end of this year. The city expects about 85,000 businesses to be eligible for rapid payments.

Support projects will also be carried out for small business owners who closed their businesses due to prolonged COVID-19 difficulties. The city has allocated a budget of 40 billion KRW for the "Recovery Support Project for Closed Small Business Owners," providing interest-free special guarantees.

The special guarantee focuses on supporting small business owners who closed their businesses between last year and this year and restarted after July with up to 30 million KRW interest-free and without collateral for three years. The city will accept applications from the 1st of next month until the budget is exhausted. About 2,000 businesses are expected to benefit from this project.

Consumption promotion projects within the region will also be conducted concurrently. Besides direct budget support for small business owners, the aim is to support market liquidity through consumption stimulation.

To this end, from November to December, the city will increase the purchase limit of the local currency "Ontong Daejeon" from the current 500,000 KRW to 1 million KRW and expand the cashback rate from 10% to 15%, allowing individuals to receive up to 300,000 KRW in cashback benefits.

In particular, the city plans to lead local consumption activation by running the Ontong Sale in conjunction with the Korea Sale Festa starting next month. Through this, the city expects a sales increase of 134.4 billion KRW for small business owners and a net consumption increase of 123.9 billion KRW.

The special measures also include mid- to long-term support plans to help the innovative growth of small business owners from a long-term perspective. For the first time among metropolitan local governments, the city will establish and operate a 100 billion KRW Small Business Management Stabilization Fund and accumulate 10 billion KRW annually from next year until 2031 to enable emergency support in case of social disasters or economic crises.

Additionally, the city plans to continue investments to strengthen small business competitiveness, including management stabilization funds, commercial district maintenance, digitalization of small businesses, and regional specialized projects.

Heo Tae-jeong, Mayor of Daejeon, said, "The number of local self-employed and small business owners facing survival crises due to prolonged social distancing is increasing. Through these special measures, the city will provide more substantial and broader support to small business owners and ultimately lead consumption promotion in local commercial districts to lay the foundation for the livelihood economy to recover independently."

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