The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 26th a plan to supply 26.5 trillion won in policy financing for small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by 2025. This consists of 3.77 trillion won for small business policy funds, 4.528 trillion won for SME policy funds, 12.2 trillion won in new guarantees from regional credit guarantee foundations, and 6 trillion won in new guarantees from the Technical Guarantee Fund.
First, regarding small business policy funds, 1.22 trillion won will be allocated for general small business support, while 1.6 trillion won will be invested for the support of vulnerable small businesses.
The support for vulnerable small businesses includes 450 billion won in emergency management stabilization funds. The support targets have been expanded to include small businesses facing management difficulties due to factors such as the closing of their transaction partners and rising prices. A special fund for re-challenge will also expand its support target and create a preferential track for small businesses with high potential for resurgence, providing 250 billion won.
Additionally, funds of 850 billion won will be supplied to support the continuous growth of small businesses with high growth potential. A new fund for cooperative growth support, aimed at encouraging online-based growth among small businesses, will also be established, totaling 100 billion won.
SME policy funds will be supplied, totaling 4.528 trillion won, divided into four groups: startup phase (1.6358 trillion won), growth phase (1.6936 trillion won), re-challenge phase (750.1 billion won), and full lifecycle (448.5 billion won) corporations. An additional 382.5 billion won will be supplied to export corporations, which is about a 200 billion won increase compared to 2024. Furthermore, support for SMEs establishing and operating overseas corporations will commence for the first time in March.
In addition to loans, the interest compensation project, which subsidizes the interest on loans from commercial banks to alleviate the financial burden on SMEs, will provide 602.7 billion won in new funding in 2025.
The regional credit guarantee foundation plans to supply 12.2 trillion won in new guarantees for 2025. The guarantees provided by the regional credit guarantee foundation are designed to ensure that small enterprises and small business owners with insufficient collateral can secure loans smoothly from banks.
A special guarantee that provides additional funds based on management performance will be established in January 2024 with a size of 100 billion won. Starting in July 2025, a bank consignment guarantee that supports both guarantees and loans for small businesses that can enhance competitiveness will also be implemented, with a target supply scale of 1.1 trillion won.
A total of 6 trillion won will be invested in technology guarantees that support startups and growth for SMEs with excellent technology but insufficient collateral. This funding will be allocated to new industries (1.8 trillion won), technology small businesses (2.1 trillion won), and youth startups (700 billion won). Support will also be provided to technology-based SMEs, which face challenges in issuing corporate bonds due to lack of credit, by increasing the liquidity company guarantee to 500 billion won.
Applications for the 2025 small business policy funds can be submitted from January on the respective websites for small business policy funds and the Korea Small Business Corporation policy funds. For detailed information, the announcements for loan plans for small business policy funds and SME policy funds can be found on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' website.