Minister Lee Young: "Itaewon Commercial District Collapsed... Will Seek Progressive Alternatives"

Meeting with Merchants to Hear Difficulties and Suggestions
Checking the Implementation Status of Support Measures by the Ministry of SMEs
"Gathering Wisdom with Relevant Ministries to Prepare Measures"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Lee Young, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, met with merchants in Itaewon who are experiencing business difficulties on the 12th and stated, "I hope we can find proactive measures beyond just loan and credit support."

On the same day, Minister Lee visited the office of the Itaewon Tourism Special Zone Association in Seoul to comfort merchants struggling with business difficulties since the Itaewon incident last October and to listen to their difficulties and suggestions.

In his greeting, Minister Lee said, "I heard that sales in the accident-affected area have been close to zero for a month," adding, "Since the merchants have to pay rent and labor costs, it seems they are having a very hard time."

He said, "The Itaewon commercial district itself has collapsed, which is very concerning," and added, "We need to consider ways to enable normal business operations."

He continued, "We plan to prepare proactive measures that can unite efforts beyond just urgent loans and credit support."

The Itaewon area is facing a crisis as the floating population decreases and merchants’ sales plummet, affecting the entire commercial district. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held its own Disaster Countermeasure Review Committee in November last year and prepared special support measures for small business owners following the declaration of Yongsan-gu as a special disaster zone.

The main support measures include ▲ recognizing operating losses as damages when issuing disaster SME certificates, unlike usual ▲ further lowering the interest rate on emergency management stabilization funds from the Small Enterprise and Market Service (2.0% → 1.5%), extending loan periods (5 → 7 years), and extending the maturity of existing funds ▲ preferential guarantee fees (fixed 0.1%) and increased guarantee ratio (100%) for regional credit guarantee foundations’ disaster SME special guarantees (up to 200 million KRW).

Minister Lee checked whether the special support measures implemented by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups have been properly executed on the ground and listened to the field difficulties and suggestions felt by small business owners and self-employed merchants in Itaewon.

Minister Lee stated, "To help the Itaewon commercial district return as a representative glocal commercial district, we will listen to the merchants’ opinions and convey them to related ministries and agencies to collectively devise measures."

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