Hwang Ki-yeon, head of The Export-Import Bank of Korea, said on the 11th that 150 trillion won will be injected to support export corporations over the next five years. More than 110 trillion won will go to small and midsize corporations with technological strength and growth potential.
Hwang held a press briefing at the Bankers Association building in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the day and said, "We will work with commercial banks to steer productive finance."
Hwang said regional small corporations are feeling fear as they try to adapt to a rapidly changing industrial environment. Hwang said, "When corporations make a decision, they are afraid of whether it is the right one and whether their accumulated business track record, asset, and employees will collapse," adding, "The Export-Import Bank of Korea will help corporations endure difficult parts through financial support."
The Export-Import Bank of Korea will inject 150 trillion won by 2030 through the "Export vitality ON (Warm) financial support package." The package was arranged to ease management difficulties for export corporations and strengthen industrial competitiveness. To help export corporations respond to crises, small corporations outside the Seoul metropolitan area will receive a 2.2 percentage point preferential lending rate. Export corporations in K-culture such as content, food, and beauty will also receive a 1.2 percentage point preferential rate. For reshoring corporations returning home from overseas, facility investment funds will receive a 1 percentage point preference and operating funds a 0.5 percentage point preference, respectively.
It will provide 110 trillion won over three years to small and midsize corporations with technological strength and growth potential. In particular, for corporations located outside the Seoul metropolitan area, more than 35% of the bank's total credit will be concentrated. Hwang also said plans will be prepared to improve the bank's lending system so that low-credit small corporations can obtain long-term loans.
It will also support 100 trillion won over the next five years for strategic bidding sectors such as defense, nuclear power plants, and infrastructure. In defense, it will support diversification of export markets and items through a defense finance package tailored to each business stage. For nuclear power, it will actively support orders for large nuclear plants and small modular reactors (SMRs).
In the second half of the year, it will also create a 1.3 trillion won export-focused small and midsize regional-led growth fund. It will arrange 3.5 trillion won in win-win finance to help small and midsize corporations that supply export-use raw and subsidiary materials to large corporations recover their early delivery payments.
To strengthen competitiveness in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, it will also launch the "AX (AI Transformation) special program," injecting 22 trillion won over the next five years. It will provide 20 trillion won in loans and guarantees for fields that underpin the AI industry, including ▲ semiconductors ▲ infrastructure ▲ large language model (LLM) development ▲ AI solutions, robot AI, and factory build-outs.
To secure critical minerals, it will create a 250 billion won fund in the second half and sign co-investment partnership agreements with representative demand corporations for critical minerals.
Hwang said that, with an amendment to the Export-Import Bank of Korea Act in Dec. last year allowing direct venture capital (VC) investment, the bank will hire related personnel and carry out a reorganization in the first half.