Kibo Conducts On-Site Inspection of Companies Affected by Middle East Conflict... Launches Emergency Task Force

Assessing Damage and Providing Prompt Emergency Management Stability Guarantees

On March 25, Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Kibo) announced that it had conducted an on-site inspection at Seongrim, located in Namdong-gu, Incheon, to assess the damage suffered by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) experiencing difficulties due to recent instability in the Middle East.

This visit was organized to directly examine the situation of affected companies and listen to their concerns, as domestic SMEs are facing increased management burdens from external factors such as rising oil prices and disruptions in raw material supply caused by the rapidly changing landscape in the Middle East.

Juseon Park, Executive Director of the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (right), is touring the manufacturing facility with Jongsoo Ok, CEO of Seongrim, listening to difficulties. Photo by Korea Technology Finance Corporation

Seongrim is a manufacturing company that produces plastic containers and caps. Recently, heightened tensions in the Middle East have disrupted the supply of naphtha, raising concerns about increased production costs due to rising raw material prices. As a result, the company is experiencing greater management challenges, including increased demand for short-term operating capital.

Taking this on-site inspection as an opportunity, Kibo plans to promptly provide “Emergency Management Stability Guarantees” to companies that have suffered direct or indirect damage from the Middle East conflict. Preferential measures will be offered, such as increasing the guarantee ratio (from 85% to 95%) and reducing guarantee fees (by 0.3 percentage points), to lessen the financial burden on affected companies and actively support their liquidity needs.

Juseon Park, Executive Director of Kibo, stated, “The management burden on domestic SMEs is increasing due to changes in the external environment, such as instability in the Middle East. Kibo will actively provide prompt guarantee support by reflecting the voices from the field, so that affected companies can continue their business activities stably.”

Meanwhile, on March 10, Kibo established an “Emergency Response Task Force for the Middle East Situation,” with its guarantee officer as the head of the task force, and is operating “Damage Reporting Centers” led by regional branch managers to continuously monitor the situation and strengthen its on-site response system. In addition to this on-site visit, Kibo will sequentially expand inspections of affected companies in the region and plans to support the swift normalization of business operations for affected companies by closely cooperating with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to expand support measures.

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