소상공인 새출발 희망 프로젝트｢New Start Hope Project｣ to help small business owners get back on their feet
Financial 3-piece set, expanding sales channels, job support in case of business closure… We will take care of ‘self-employed people in crisis’ thoroughly to the end
– Extending the policy loan repayment period to up to 5 years for small business owners with management difficulties
– Easing the burden of delivery fees for small business owners such as restaurants and expanding the scope of support for electricity bills
– Supporting up to 700 million won in policy funds for small businesses that grow
– Increasing the New Start Fund to over 40 trillion won and strengthening support for business closure costs and re-employment training
President Yoon Seok-yeol presided over the “2nd Half of 2024 Economic Policy Direction and Dynamic Economy Roadmap” announcement event at the Blue House Guest House on Wednesday, July 3 at 10:00 and discussed the “Comprehensive Measures for Small Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons.”
Recently, the difficulties of small business owners are increasing due to the cost burden caused by the prolonged high interest rates, delayed domestic demand recovery, and increased debt in the process of responding to COVID-19. Accordingly, the government announced a plan to promote customized support according to the management conditions of small business owners under the three major principles of “➊ Focusing on vulnerable groups, ➋ Sufficient support, ➌ Parallel structural response.”
First, we will promote a “three-piece financial support set” to ease the debt concerns of small business owners. Starting from August 24, we will significantly expand the scope of policy fund repayment extension for small business owners experiencing management difficulties, and extend the extension period to up to 5 years. We will establish a 5 trillion won conversion guarantee (July 24) so that small business owners using guaranteed loans from the Regional Credit Guarantee Foundation can extend the repayment period by up to 5 years, and we plan to significantly ease the requirements for the program that converts high-interest loans (7% or higher) from banks and non-banking institutions to low-interest loans (4.5% fixed interest, 10-year installment repayment) from the Small Business Market Promotion Agency (August 24).
In addition, we will expand support to ease the burden of fixed costs such as delivery fees, rent, and electricity bills. First, we will operate a consultative body comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, including delivery platform operators and the restaurant industry (July 2024) to quickly establish a win-win cooperation plan within the year, and promote delivery fee support from 2025 to ease the management burden of small business owners such as restaurants. We will extend the ‘Good Landlord Tax Credit’ that supports landlords who reduce rent for small business owners until the end of 2025, and expand the target of small business electricity bill support (KRW 200,000) to those with annual sales of KRW 60 million or less (previously KRW 30 million or less) from July 2024, providing additional electricity bill support to up to 500,000 people.
We will also focus on supporting small business owners’ leap forward to small businesses (scale-up). We will promote smart and digitalization of small business owners through support for the distribution of software as a service (SaaS) and entry into online sales channels, and establish a “milestone support program” to support up to 700 million won in policy funds through linkage with small business owners (up to 200 million won) and medium-sized business owners (up to 500 million won) when promising small business owners grow into small businesses. We also plan to closely support expansion of sales channels such as entry into overseas shopping malls so that small business owners can be competitive in overseas markets.
Lastly, for small business owners whose management situations are severely difficult, we will actively support their recovery through bold debt adjustment and re-employment and re-establishment. We will expand the target of debt adjustment and significantly expand the “new start fund size” to 40 trillion won + α (previously 30 trillion won). In addition, we will promote the “New Start Hope Project” to support employment and re-establishment of small business owners in connection with the National Employment Support System, Hope Return Package, etc. In particular, the ‘Small Business Specialized Employment Support Program’ will be operated to provide training participation allowances (up to 6 months, 500,000 to 1.1 million won per month) and employers who hire closed small business owners will be paid employment promotion incentives of 300,000 to 600,000 won per month (per person) for one year. It plans to support re-establishment of businesses up to 20 million won, focusing on growing industries, and expand the scale of store demolition cost support (up to 2.5 million won → 4 million won).
The government plans to quickly operate a one-stop platform so that small business owners can receive information on the measures announced this time at once and conveniently use the services they need. Starting in July of this year, integrated information on small business policies will be provided through 77 small business support centers nationwide, and services will be provided through the SME Integrated Call Center (1357) starting in August. Starting in January 2025, a comprehensive support system for small business owners will be fully operated, including the establishment of a dedicated channel for small business owners within the SME Integrated Call Center.
