Minimizing Typhoon Damage for Small Business Owners and SMEs... Support Measures Prepared by Each Institution

SBC Directly Operates Flood and Wind Damage Situation Team under Vice President
Financial Support Prepared by KOSME and Others

Typhoon No. 6 ‘Khanun’ is passing through the Korean Peninsula, and organizations related to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), small business owners, and traditional markets are working to minimize damage.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 11th at 10 a.m. that it will hold a ‘Typhoon Inspection and Weekly Executive Meeting’ attended by the minister and vice ministers. Following a countermeasure meeting held on the 8th to prepare for the typhoon’s northward advance, the ministry plans to discuss recovery and support measures for the affected areas. Minister Lee Young mentioned that to ensure smooth implementation of recovery and support measures in the areas heavily affected by the typhoon, the establishment and operation of one-stop support centers will be considered.

On the 10th, due to the impact of Typhoon No. 6 'Khanun', heavy rain poured down in the Yeongdong region of Gangwon Province. In Geojin-ri, Geojin-eup, Goseong-gun, a merchant is pumping out water that filled the store.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Small Enterprise and Market Service (SEMAS), which is responsible for traditional markets, has been operating a flood and wind damage situation team directly under the vice president since last month. Small business owners in damaged markets who receive disaster confirmation certificates or damage verification certificates through local governments can receive emergency management stabilization funds of up to 70 million KRW at an annual interest rate of 2%. On the 9th, SEMAS held a video conference chaired by Director Park Seong-hyo, involving all departments at the headquarters, seven regional headquarters, and 77 regional centers, to establish measures for immediate recovery support in case of damage.

A SEMAS official explained, “We operate a KakaoTalk channel called ‘Sangin Jeongbotong’ (Merchant Information Network), through which we provided prior guidance on drainage maintenance and other matters to 18,000 traditional market merchants who subscribed. For markets functionally impacted, we plan to partially support necessary marketing costs ahead of holidays or joint festivals to help restore vitality.”

The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise also is assessing typhoon damage. The regional federations sent an urgent notice via text message the day before, stating, “If damage occurs, please contact this number so that the provincial government can be informed and help simplify the typhoon damage process for small business owners.” The damage survey form allows for recording damage details, estimated damage amounts, and requests for government or other support.

The Korea SMEs and Startups Agency operates an ‘Ambulance Man’ program for companies affected by natural disasters. The Ambulance Man provides rapid policy fund loans to disaster-affected SMEs and startups. The loan limit is up to 1 billion KRW per company, with a fixed annual interest rate of 1.9% and a loan period of 5 years (2 years grace period, 3 years installment repayment).

BNK Busan Bank has also started supporting SMEs damaged by the typhoon. It will provide new damage recovery funds of up to 500 million KRW per company to typhoon-affected SMEs and small business owners. Additionally, to ease economic burdens, a special interest rate reduction of up to 1.0 percentage point will be applied. The bank will extend the maturity of loan principal due for repayment by up to one year without repayment, and allow a grace period of up to six months for installment repayments such as facility loan repayments.

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