Chairman Kang Seungjun of KODIT Visits Sites to Address Middle East Risk

Kang Seungjun, Chairman of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, carried out his first official schedule after taking office by visiting companies concerned about potential damages stemming from instability in the Middle East, conducting an on-site inspection.

Seungjun Kang, Chairman of the Credit Guarantee Fund (third from the left), visited Youngpoong Co., Ltd., an agricultural corporation located in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, on the 18th to hear the difficulties faced by export companies to the Middle East. Provided by Credit Guarantee Fund

According to the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund on March 19, Chairman Kang visited Youngpoong Agricultural Corporation, located in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, the previous day to listen to the difficulties faced by the company and to examine support measures. This visit was arranged to directly assess the challenges experienced by companies amid rising risks, such as delayed export payments, due to escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Youngpoong is a food manufacturing company that has previously received the “20 Million Dollar Export Tower” award and was selected as a “Global Small Giant” by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, making it a promising export enterprise. However, due to recent instability in the Middle East and the global economic slowdown, management uncertainty is increasing. At the on-site meeting that day, CEO Cho Jaegon stated, “With the triple challenges of high inflation, high interest rates, and high exchange rates, compounded by the situation in the Middle East, the burden on export companies has grown significantly,” adding, “To ensure the swift normalization of affected companies, it is necessary to expand substantial financial support.”

Chairman Kang said, “I am grateful to the companies striving for the globalization of K-Food despite worsening external conditions,” and added, “We will actively address liquidity crises faced by export companies through the Special Rapid Crisis Response Guarantee.” The Special Rapid Crisis Response Guarantee is a program designed to support companies experiencing temporary funding shortages due to deteriorating internal and external environments, such as increased customs duties and domestic market stagnation. The Korea Credit Guarantee Fund plans to streamline the guarantee review process for companies affected by the Middle East situation and to reduce guarantee fees by up to 0.5 percentage points to alleviate financial costs. Chairman Kang emphasized, “We will promptly reflect the voices from the field into policy to ensure that global small giants do not lose their growth momentum due to external shocks,” and added, “We will continue to visit various industrial sites and strengthen support for companies going forward.”

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