Mokpo City Expands Support Projects to Strengthen Competitiveness of Small Business Owners

Full Effort to Revive Domestic Demand by Promoting Sound Consumption in the Era of Triple Highs

Mokpo City Hall exterior view
[Photo by Mokpo City]

[Mokpo=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Jeonnam Mokpo City is comprehensively expanding projects to strengthen the competitiveness of small business owners, the lifeblood of the local economy.

According to the city on the 10th, the expanded projects include support for small business management stabilization funds through contributions to the Jeonnam Credit Guarantee Foundation, incentives for joining the Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid, interest subsidy support for small business loans, and issuance and operation of the Mokpo Sarang Gift Certificate.

The city is increasing the budget for the small business Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid joining incentive, which adds a 20,000 KRW monthly incentive when paying monthly mutual aid contributions, to expand the social safety net for small business owners and strengthen opportunities for business recovery.

To alleviate the financial difficulties of small business owners facing the three highs (high prices, high interest rates, and high exchange rates), the interest subsidy support project for small business loans, which supported 3% annual interest on loans up to 30 million KRW per business for one year (up to 900,000 KRW), will be expanded to two years (up to 1.8 million KRW) starting this year.

The Mokpo Sarang Gift Certificate, which has received favorable reviews for preventing the outflow of local funds and promoting small business sales, will be issued on a scale of 80 billion KRW (30 billion KRW in paper form, 50 billion KRW in mobile card form).

In particular, to increase convenience in gift certificate usage by diversifying payment methods, a mobile Mokpo Sarang Gift Certificate (QR payment type) will be introduced starting February.

Additionally, the city will nurture ‘e-commerce small business owners’ through online utilization education, product improvement, and store entry support, and operate the ‘Small Business Academy,’ a customized promotion and marketing education program for small business owners.

New projects for this year include △support for small-scale management environment improvement at reasonably priced businesses △development and revitalization of alley-type shopping districts △promotion and marketing of Jeollanam-do’s public delivery app ‘Meokgaebi.’

The city will expand the number of reasonably priced businesses contributing to stabilizing living costs to 30 locations, strengthen promotion so that more residents can use them, and expand support in various areas such as outdoor signage, interior, and consumables to improve customer convenience and hygiene levels.

Small business-dense areas not previously recognized as shopping districts will be developed into ‘local alley-type shopping districts’ in collaboration with the private sector to increase small business sales and revitalize alley commercial areas.

Furthermore, to reduce the excessive commission burden on small business owners from using private delivery apps, Jeollanam-do will promote the use of the public delivery app ‘Meokgaebi’ through online and offline marketing promotions and discount coupon events.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul said, “For small business owners who have been increasingly struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and domestic and international economic downturns, we will do our best to implement comprehensive support policies with the conviction that ‘the local economy thrives only when the small business owners, the roots of the local economy, survive.’”

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