Wando-gun Launches Full-Scale Support for Small Business Owners in Finance, Management, Stability, and Welfare

[Wando=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 13th that it is making efforts to support small business owners who are struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, including establishing a dedicated organization for small business support through an organizational restructuring last September.

According to the Statistics Korea's "2019 Establishment Survey" data, there are 4,541 small businesses in the area, accounting for 95% of all businesses, with the number of employees reaching 10,057.

As of September 2022, the population of the county is 47,830, and since small business owners account for one-fifth of the total, their impact on the local economy is very significant.

Accordingly, the county is promoting policies such as financial support, management stabilization support, welfare, and group support for small business owners.

The financial support policy provides loans by implementing a special guarantee that contributes guarantee funds to the Jeonnam Credit Guarantee Foundation for small business owners lacking collateral, and promotes an interest subsidy project that supports 3% of the loan interest on the borrowed funds.

Through this, 3,102 businesses have received loans totaling 77.6 billion won over the past five years.

As a management stabilization support policy, the county is promoting a marketing and publicity expense support project for small business owners.

Considering the higher proportion of elderly small business owners compared to other local governments, the county provides up to 300,000 won each to 200 people for online brokerage platform fees, banner advertisements, as well as offline and online publicity expenses such as banners and newspaper ads.

Starting next year, the county plans to implement a card fee support project targeting 1,000 small businesses with annual sales of less than 300 million won, providing up to 300,000 won per business (only applicable to Wando Love Gift Card affiliated stores) for three years.

The small business welfare project has promoted the "Small Business Owner Mental Health Healing Program" in three phases to provide opportunities for recharging to small business owners who are continuously devoted to their livelihoods.

In addition, to prepare for business closure and old age, the county supports social safety net expansion and business recovery by providing an encouragement payment of 20,000 won per month up to 240,000 won for subscribing to the "Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid."

The dedicated small business support team plans to directly address the difficulties of small business owners by conducting a management status survey and expanding customized support such as building an online platform for small business owners and providing guidance on support policies to resolve management difficulties.

A county official said, "Since small business owners are facing great difficulties due to COVID-19, we plan to establish a one-stop support center for small business owners through communication with them."

Wando=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Choi Kyung-pil alwatros@asiae.co.kr

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