Minister Han Seong-suk announced countermeasures to address the disaster blind spots for small business owners at the second small business relay meeting.
The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups (SMBA) held the second meeting on the theme of "recovery and strengthening safety nets for small business owners" at Dream Square in Mapo, Seoul, on the 7th. Starting from the first meeting held on the 30th, the SMBA plans to conduct a total of 10 meetings focusing on financial safety nets, crisis safety nets, and business closure and reestablishment safety nets. Each meeting will present feasible policy tasks from previous meetings' recommendations.
The meeting of the day was conducted on the theme of disaster rapid response systems. Minister Han presented the "measures to address disaster blind spots in traditional markets" for disaster prevention, response, and recovery as policy improvement tasks.
First, the SMBA will support cooling equipment such as cooling force and portable air conditioners for individual stores or common areas in traditional markets through the traditional market safety management package project to help small business owners cope with heatwaves.
The support limit is up to 5 million won per individual store, and if installed in common areas, it can be used within 10% of the total project cost. Traditional markets that apply for the support project announced by the SMBA will be selected through evaluation. The SMBA plans to start the first announcement of the 2026 traditional market safety package project at the end of August.
Additionally, a "one-stop support center" will be operated for all traditional markets affected by natural or social disasters. The one-stop support center will serve as a control tower operated by the SMBA and will consist of local Small and Medium Enterprises Agency offices, Small Enterprise & Market Service (SEMAS) regional centers, local credit guarantee foundations, and other organizations.
Currently, they are focusing on traditional markets with many affected stores, assisting with damage status surveys and the rapid issuance of disaster confirmation certificates that merchants need to apply for financial support. In the future, centers will be operated for all traditional markets affected by disasters, and support will be expanded to include hygiene management for product flooding, safety management to prevent accidents such as electric shock, psychological healing, and a detailed support system in various areas.
The compensation limit for fire insurance, designed for traditional market merchants affected by fires, will also increase from 60 million won to 100 million won. Previously, it was possible to subscribe up to 60 million won with 30 million won for buildings, facilities, and fixtures, and 30 million won for movable property, but in the future, it will be possible to subscribe up to 100 million won with 50 million won for buildings, facilities, and fixtures, and 50 million won for movable property.
Meanwhile, prior to the meeting, Minister Han presented improvements on tasks that could be resolved quickly from the opinions of small business owners raised at the first meeting.
First, the SMBA will expand the promotion of 'disaster-related business for small business owners' discussed at the last meeting. The SMBA is in discussions to connect the promotion of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's disaster insurance system for wind and flood with the national merchants' association, planning to distribute promotional materials to 1,393 markets.
In addition, the promotion of employment insurance and employment support will be strengthened. The SMBA plans to promote employment insurance support projects targeting small business owners utilizing department projects and is pursuing ways to link this with the Hope Return Package and the National Employment Support System.
Lastly, to enable small business owners to respond to crises before closing their businesses, consulting will be linked to those using the policy fund partitioning repayment and interest reduction exceptions to support overcoming management crises and business restructuring.