Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises said on the 1st it will run a Yellow Umbrella online enrollment promotion throughout June.
If a small enterprise or microbusiness owner newly enrolls through the Yellow Umbrella website or mobile by the 30th, they can receive Naver Pay worth 50,000 won and a Yellow Umbrella character emoji set.
Naver Pay can be used like cash on various online platforms, including multiple shopping malls and Smart Store, as well as at offline merchants such as convenience stores and cafes. The Yellow Umbrella characters that move in three dimensions consist of 16 types.
KBIZ has expanded the Yellow Umbrella online enrollment hours since the end of last month. Previously, online enrollment was limited to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., but now it is available from 7 a.m. to 11:50 p.m.
Yellow Umbrella is a mutual aid program that KBIZ has operated since 2007 to support small enterprises and microbusiness owners with livelihood stability and business recovery during management crises such as closure or old age. As of May this year, the total number of enrolled members surpassed 1.89 million.
When enrolling in Yellow Umbrella, members receive income tax deduction benefits (up to 6 million won per year) and compound interest is applied annually to the principal paid. The mutual aid payout is legally protected from seizure, so it can collateral at least a minimum level of livelihood stability if faced with a crisis.
Each local government also provides a hope incentive of 10,000 to 30,000 won per month to new enrollees. The structure allows additional accumulation to the contributions for 12 months. A total of 17 metropolitan local governments and 110 basic local governments nationwide are operating the hope incentive program.