Namwon City Expands 'Small Business Financial Support'... Up to 30 Million KRW

Published 12 Jan.2022 14:38(KST)

[Namwon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Young-kwon] Namwon City, Jeonbuk announced on the 12th that it will expand financial support for small business owners to overcome the economic crisis caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to achieve phased daily recovery.

Following last year, the city signed agreements with the Jeonbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation and eight local financial institutions this year as well, expanding support from small business owners with credit ratings of grade 4 or below to all credit grades through special guarantees instead of collateral, allowing loans up to 30 million KRW without collateral.

In particular, this year, the city plans to increase the Jeonbuk Credit Guarantee Foundation’s contribution fund to 200 million KRW, expanding the special guarantee amount (10 times the contribution fund) to 2 billion KRW.

The special loan interest will also be subsidized at 2% for three years, and the application process has been simplified to allow applications without visiting city hall.

Since 2013, the city has been implementing a special financial support project for small business owners facing management difficulties, providing operating fund loans totaling 9.526 billion KRW to 503 small business owners to date.

Last year, the city revised the ‘Namwon City Ordinance on Support for Small Business Owners’ to expand support from only small business owners with credit ratings of grade 4 or below to all credit grades.

Even small business owners who were struggling due to decreased sales from COVID-19 but were previously unable to receive support because of high credit ratings have welcomed the opening of loan opportunities.

A city official said, “We hope this will be a strong help to small business owners who are the backbone of the local economy in these still difficult economic conditions caused by the spread of COVID-19,” and added, “We will continue to seek various support measures to revitalize the economy.”