The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a meeting at the Seoul Central Support Center for Restarting Entrepreneurial Businesses and announced the policy direction for the '2025 Small Business Restart Support Project' on the 14th.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has been operating a task force (TF) involving relevant ministries and private experts since October last year to prepare support measures for restarting in 2025.
First, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to introduce a fast track to shorten the processing time for debt adjustments through rehabilitation, bankruptcy, and workouts, and to link it with the restart support project and funding after the debt adjustments.
In the employment sector, it aims to expand and reshape tailored employment education programs and strengthen employment support through personalized counseling by offering both online and offline training, considering the livelihood maintenance and educational conditions of small business owners who are closing down.
By promoting specialized employment programs in collaboration with relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Financial Services Commission, it will provide subsidies during employment training and activities, expand the employment success bonus, and facilitate credit recovery by offering preferential debt adjustment rates during training completion, with a principal reduction rate of up to 80% to 90%.
In the area of re-challenge (re-startup), support systems have been sophisticated to enable small businesses facing management crises or those that have closed down to stabilize and restart their enterprises by diagnosing and improving their management conditions and matching them with dedicated project managers (PM) for in-depth mentoring.
If the diagnosis results in a confirmed closure, support will be linked to specialized employment programs, and foundational and practical training to suggest directions for re-startup commercialization and enhance management mindsets will be provided, along with assigning strategy task PMs and supporting re-startup commercialization expenses of up to 20 million won.
As the number of small business closures increases, to alleviate the burden of closure procedures, the expenses for business cleanup consulting, legal and debt counseling, and store demolition support will be expanded to a maximum of 4 million won.
In the area of social safety nets, the procedures for applying for and receiving employment insurance for small business owners and self-employed individuals will be simplified to increase enrollment rates. The Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid will expand agreements with institutions providing financial products with preferential conditions. Other social safety net measures will also be strengthened, including the raised limits on income deductions (expanding by 1 million won for amounts up to 10 million won, and establishing new ranges of 40 million to 60 million won) and easing tax burdens on refund amounts (reducing existing other income tax from 15% to improved retirement income tax of 3%).
Finally, an organizational restructuring was implemented, and the Small Business Management Stabilization Support Group was launched with a significant increase in personnel. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to systematically support policies for small business restart support to overcome management crises and stabilize operations.
Minister Oh Youngju noted, "We are making every effort together with the private sector to ensure that small business owners and self-employed individuals in crisis can quickly restart," adding, "I will ensure that the budget of 245 billion won for the Small Business Restart Support Hope Return Package, significantly increased in 2025, is executed swiftly."