Jinju City, Consumption Sentiment Shrinks Amid Impeachment Crisis... Prompt Promotion of Small Business Support Projects

Early Implementation of Small Business Development Funds and Other Projects
Early Promotion of Jinju-style Public Job Projects

Jinju City in Gyeongnam announced on the 23rd that it will promptly promote the 2025 small business support project and public job project to support small business owners and employment-vulnerable groups who have been hit hard by the consumption sentiment contraction due to the impeachment political turmoil.

To improve the economy of small business owners struggling due to the impeachment turmoil, the city decided to increase the issuance of Jinju Sarang Gift Certificates from the originally planned 11 billion KRW to 16 billion KRW and expand issuance in January 2025. The mobile Jinju Sarang Gift Certificates will be issued on January 2nd with a scale of 15 billion KRW, and paper gift certificates will be issued on January 20th with a scale of 1 billion KRW.

The target issuance amount of Jinju Sarang Gift Certificates in 2025 is 60 billion KRW, which will be issued every odd month from January to November, and also in October to revitalize the local economy during festival periods.

Jinju City Hall.

Mobile gift certificates can be purchased through the ZeroPay app, and paper gift certificates can be purchased at NongHyup, Gyeongnam Bank, and Saemaeul Geumgo with a monthly limit of 200,000 KRW per person, with a discount rate of 7%.

Jinju City's small business development fund, aimed at reducing interest burdens and promoting management stability for small business owners, plans to implement the first half of the project starting January 15th.

The loan methods will proceed in two ways: guaranteed loans through the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation and financial institutions' own credit and collateral loans. Interest of 3% per annum will be supported for two years on loans up to 50 million KRW per business. When borrowing through the Credit Guarantee Foundation, one year of credit guarantee fees will be supported.

The total loan scale this year is 45 billion KRW, consisting of 30 billion KRW in guaranteed loans through the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation and 15 billion KRW in financial institutions' own credit and collateral loans.

Since small business owners are urgently in need of funding due to the worsening business conditions caused by the impeachment turmoil and sales decline, the project will be implemented about a month earlier than in 2024, starting in January, and 26 billion KRW out of the 45 billion KRW project volume will be supported in the first half of the year.

Additionally, to support loans for small business owners lacking collateral, the guaranteed loan scale will be temporarily increased by 6 billion KRW in 2025, following 2024.

To increase sales and strengthen self-sustainability by improving the management environment of small business owners, the Small Business Management Environment Improvement Project will support facility improvement costs such as replacing outdoor signs and improving interiors of business sites. The Small Business Digital Infrastructure Support Project will support items such as 3D printers and table orders, and the Small Business Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Hope Incentive Support Project to promote subscription to the Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid will also be implemented as early as possible.

The Jinju-type public job project, originally scheduled to implement the first half of the project in March 2025, will be advanced to February to provide economic support to employment-vulnerable groups.

The Jinju-type public job project is a public sector direct job project implemented by Jinju City to stabilize the livelihood and motivate the work of employment-vulnerable groups. The total project budget for next year is 4 billion KRW. It will be conducted in the first and second halves of the year, selecting and placing about 320 employment-vulnerable people and youth in each half for a total of 195 projects, including administrative work assistance at each workplace, environmental cleanup projects such as public facility maintenance, and parking guidance at public parking lots.

Working conditions vary by project type, with work hours ranging from 4 to 6 hours per day. Wages will be paid at 10,030 KRW per hour reflecting the 2025 minimum wage, with additional daily transportation and snack allowances of 5,000 KRW, as well as weekly holiday and annual leave allowances.

With the early implementation of the first half of the Jinju-type public job project, the announcement and recruitment schedule will also be advanced, with announcements expected around the end of December and recruitment in early January.

A Jinju City official stated, “We will do our best to promptly promote public job projects and small business support policies so that small business owners and employment-vulnerable groups facing difficulties can overcome the crisis.”

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