Jo Joohyun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Visits Typhoon Damage Site in Pohang to Discuss Recovery and Support Measures

Request for Ministry of SMEs and Startups Projects in Industrial Crisis Preemptive Response Areas... Urgent Appeal for National Budget Support

Severe Damage to Traditional Markets and Small Businesses... Desperate Need for Special Support Measures

Vice Minister Jo Joo-hyun of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups holding a meeting to listen to difficulties from representatives of five affected small and medium-sized enterprises in the conference room of the Steel Management Corporation.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Cho Joo-hyun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, visited small and medium-sized enterprises and traditional market sites in the Pohang area affected by Typhoon ‘Hinnamnor’ on the 4th.

On that day, Vice Minister Cho toured the sites of small and medium-sized enterprises and Ocheon Market, which suffered severe flooding damage, carefully examining the extent of the damage and recovery status.

He was accompanied by Lee Jang-sik, Deputy Mayor of Pohang City, Lee Young-seok, Director of the Job Economy Office of Gyeongbuk Province, Baek Woon-man, Head of Daegu-Gyeongbuk Regional Office of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Shim Min-soo, Head of the Gyeongbuk Eastern Branch of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, Lee Kwang-yeol, Head of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Regional Headquarters of the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and Lee Geon-soo, Head of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Sales Headquarters of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, to inspect the sites and discuss support measures.

At the Pohang Steel Management Complex, a meeting was held with representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the typhoon to collect opinions on necessary support, and time was spent on-site to communicate with small business owners and listen to their difficulties.

Pohang City stated that support for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners affected by the damage is far insufficient compared to the scale of the damage, causing difficulties, and requested special support measures at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups level.

To support small business owners, they proposed measures for damage recovery and restoration, including ▲ expansion of the public parking lot at Jukdo Market ▲ construction of a lifelong education training center for small business owners, and as support measures for small and medium-sized enterprises, projects related to designation as a preemptive response area for industrial crisis, such as ▲ support for overcoming corporate crises (expansion of emergency management stabilization funds) ▲ establishment of a steel rebound fund ▲ construction and operation of a business support center ▲ support for diversification of materials and components ▲ securing national budget and project promotion for growth-driven R&D scale-up were requested.

Due to this typhoon, Pohang’s 16 traditional markets with about 1,800 stores suffered flooding damage, and including this, damage to commercial establishments reached about 7,000 cases. The confirmed corporate damage registered in the National Disaster Management System (NDMS) amounts to 413 cases totaling 1.0348 trillion KRW.

This figure only confirms direct damage, and when including indirect damage such as business losses, the total damage is estimated to be 4 to 5 times the direct damage amount.

As it is expected to take considerable time for POSCO’s operations to fully normalize, damage to small and medium-sized enterprises related to the steel industry is expected to increase further.

Vice Minister Cho Joo-hyun said, “I visited the site to confirm the necessary matters for small and medium-sized enterprises related to the steel industry and small business owners including traditional markets who suffered damage. We will actively review the opinions given today and the proposals from Pohang City to ensure practical support is provided.”

Deputy Mayor Lee Jang-sik said, “Small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises vulnerable to disasters suffered great damage from this typhoon. Although emergency recovery is somewhat completed, there is a lack of recovery measures that can give hope. We request the prompt allocation of national budget for related measures to ensure the rapid normalization of stores and companies.”

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