The Small and Medium Business Corporation (SMBC) announced on the 1st that the size of the Small and Medium Venture Business Startup and Promotion Fund (SMBC Fund) for 2025 was confirmed at 11.5595 trillion won after the National Assembly's plenary session vote on Dec. 10.
This represents an increase of 3.8% (420.6 billion won) compared to the 2024 SMBC Fund's original budget of 11.1389 trillion won.
The SMBC focused on enhancing support to minimize risks and drive innovative growth amid the changes in the domestic and external economic and management environments faced by small and medium-sized corporations.
To facilitate quick liquidity supply, along with the existing loan policy funds of 4.5295 trillion won, the SMBC will also support 602.7 billion won in interest compensation this year to alleviate interest burdens on small and medium venture corporations through private finance.
The SMBC previously supported the management stabilization of small businesses affected by the uncalculated e-commerce issues of 2024, such as Wemaep and TMON. This year, it has allocated an additional 100 billion won for emergency management stabilization funds to proactively respond to liquidity crises in small and medium venture corporations.
To support exporting small and medium venture corporations, the new market entry support fund was increased by 193.1 billion won, and the export voucher budget was expanded to 127.6 billion won, an increase of 15.7 billion won from the previous year.
It will identify promising small and medium venture corporations with high growth potential and support their scale-up to mid-sized corporations by establishing a 'Jump-Up Program' budget of 29.9 billion won to build a growth ladder for corporations.
In addition, it plans to assist small and medium venture corporations facing difficulties in utilizing specialized personnel by matching them with foreign personnel who possess specialized knowledge or skilled technology, such as international students.
Kang Seok-jin, chairman of the SMBC, noted, 'In response to challenging domestic and foreign management environments, we will build a proactive response system and steadfastly promote policy support to drive corporate innovation growth, fulfilling our role as the frontline policy execution agency for small and medium venture corporations.'