45th Meeting of Central Economic Response Headquarters
Government to Help Small Business Ride Out Virus
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki presided over the 45th Meeting of the Central Economic Response Headquarters held on September 16, and discussed plans to help small business ride out the pandemic, which include loan extension. DPM Hong talked about the current economic situation at the beginning of his keynote address, and touched on the administration’s national food supply chain initiative at the end of his speech.
The following is a summary of DPM Hong’s keynote address.
Current economic situation stable, but uneven recovery seen
Recovery continues, despite the new wave of Covid-19 infections, as credit card use keeps posting an over 7 percent increase since last June, exports rose more than 30 percent for September 1-10 and August employment read over 500,000 new jobs, making it a fifth consecutive month of above 500,000 job creation. However, close contact services are suffering due to tightened disease control and tourism has yet to pick up. This uneven recovery calls for further protection for those trapped in such businesses. Following the tax and contributions payment extension discussed at the previous meeting, we will look at the renewal of small business loan extension programs and measures to support tourism-dependent businesses.
Renewed financial support for small businesses
- Give an extra six month extension for commercial loans, as well as loans from state-owned financial institutions, to the end of March 2022, taken out by small businesses and SMEs
- Extend the paid leave given to the 15 tourism-dependent businesses, such as hotels, transportation services and travel agencies, to 300 days, up from the current 270 days
We thank commercial banks for their cooperation on the extra extension, and will work on soft-landing through programs to support repayment plans and pre-workout agreements.
Further support tourism
- Expand the special loan program for tourism-dependent small businesses, unsecured business loans, to 100 billion won in 2022, as well as extend loans from public tourism funds, which will otherwise expire early next year
- Suspend the regular hotel inspection until the end of June 2022
- Keep in 2022 the 50 percent discount on the mandatory leisure facilities safety inspection fee
- More to come as we finalize our discussion on details
National food supply chain initiative
The government will work on the five year plan (2021-2025) for the national food supply chain, which covers from production to logistics, to make it more sustainable and efficient through regulatory and budgetary support.
