Restarting a Business is Becoming Easier and Easier in South Korea

It has been found that environments in South Korea for ensuring a second chance for entrepreneurs have improved to a significant extent in the recent three years.

According to the Small & Medium Business Administration (SMBA), the number of joint surety exemptions provided for business founders by government-run financial institutions such as the Small Business Corporation, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Korea Technology Guarantee Fund increased from five cases worth 1.9 billion won (US$1.7 million) to 6,000 cases worth 1.9 trillion won (1.9 billion) between 2013 and the first three quarters of this year. Likewise, the number of firms that succeeded in restarting with the government’s backing increased from 244 to 466 between 2013 and last year.

This improvement can be attributed to the SMBA’s cooperation with various government agencies, such as the Financial Services Commission, for facilitating startup entrepreneurs’ retry by means of tax burden alleviation, debt restructuring support, credit information sharing limitation, joint surety exemption expansion, etc. They have run service centers and expanded their subsidies for the same purpose, too.

“We are planning to continue to focus on helping entrepreneurs try again and removing obstacles to their attempts in the framework of the government’s plan for economic innovation,” the SMBA explained.