Government Provides 209.7 Billion KRW Financial Support to the Sports Industry

Loan of 184.3 Billion KRW and Fund of 25.4 Billion KRW... Principal Repayment Deferral and Maturity Extension

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation announced a 209.7 billion KRW financial support plan for the sports industry on the 27th. They will support sports companies facing financial difficulties due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic by offering low-interest policy loans at around 1% and funds.

The policy loan targets include manufacturers of sports equipment, sports service providers, and sports facility operators. The support scale is 184.3 billion KRW, which is an increase of 1.7 times (78.1 billion KRW) compared to this year. Applications will be accepted continuously from January 3 to July 15 next year. An official stated, "Support will be implemented four times a year to ensure that demanders receive assistance in a timely manner," and added, "Once support is approved, loans will be provided with collateral through thirteen commercial banks."

For some sports facilities excluded from loss compensation (indoor sports facilities outside the metropolitan area and outdoor sports facilities nationwide), 50 billion KRW has been allocated. The official said, "The operating fund limit will be temporarily raised from 200 million KRW to 1 billion KRW." They further explained, "Considering the industry's financial difficulties, from January to December next year, companies currently repaying principal or with repayment due dates will be granted a one-year principal repayment deferral and maturity extension."

The government’s contribution to the sports industry fund amounts to 25.4 billion KRW. The new contribution is 24 billion KRW, which is 1.8 times (11 billion KRW) more than this year. The remaining 1.4 billion KRW will be reinvested by recovering uninvested portions from already invested sub-funds. An official explained, "The government contribution ratio is 60%," and added, "When selecting fund managers, additional points will be given to those who can form the fund early within two months." They further elaborated, "If the fund exceeds the benchmark return rate of 2% or invests more than 70% in the sports sector within two years, additional performance fees will be provided to encourage investment activation." For more details, please refer to the sports industry support website.

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