Gwangju City Proposes Legal Basis for Disaster Support for Small Businesses and SMEs

Leading the Realistic Reform of Special Disaster Area Declaration Criteria

Gwangju City in Gyeonggi Province announced on November 20 that it has established a legal basis for disaster support by leading an amendment to the relevant law so that natural disaster damages suffered by small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can be included as targets for national financial support.

Gwangju City Hall exterior. Provided by Gyeonggi Gwangju City

Last November, Gwangju City suffered a total of 39.5 billion won in damages due to record-breaking heavy snowfall. However, damages to factories and small business owners, which accounted for 87% of the total, were excluded from the calculation of damages eligible for national financial support. As a result, the city failed to meet the criteria for being designated a special disaster area (57 billion won for national support, 5.03 billion won for Gwangju City) and faced difficulties as it was excluded from the special disaster area designation.

The criteria for declaring a special disaster area only included damages to residential and agricultural/fishery facilities, while damages to factories and small business owner facilities were not recognized, leading to the issue of the actual scale of damages being underestimated.

In response, Gwangju City continuously raised the need for institutional improvement, officially proposing the "expansion of special disaster area declaration criteria" to Gyeonggi Province and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on December 19, 2024. On February 12, 2025, at the 7th regular meeting of the Gyeonggi Province Mayors and County Governors Council, the city strongly urged for the inclusion of damages suffered by small business owners and SMEs.

Reflecting these proposals, Article 66, Paragraph 3 of the amended "Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety," revised on May 27, 2025, newly established a provision for "support for the recovery and management stabilization of facilities damaged by small business owners and SMEs." The amended law will take effect from November 28, 2025. With this revision, the legal basis for national-level support for small business owners and SMEs affected by natural disasters has been established.

In line with this, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety revised and distributed the "Natural Disaster Investigation and Recovery Plan Manual" on June 26, 2025, improving it so that buildings owned by small business owners and SMEs are also included in the scope of damage investigations.

Mayor Bang Sehwan stated, "This legal amendment is an important institutional improvement that resolves the unfairness in disaster damage assessment and enables local small business owners and SMEs to receive substantial recovery support," adding, "We will continue to strengthen cooperation with relevant agencies so that the disaster support system can be operated more fairly and promptly."

Meanwhile, the city plans to contribute to the stability of the local economy and citizens' lives by establishing an accurate damage assessment and prompt support system in the event of future disasters.

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