Additional Investment
"The government will supply additional 10 trillion won (US$9 billion) for three years to vitalize the venture business," said Yoo Il-ho, deputy prime minister and minister of strategy and finance on April 19. Before his statement, the government had a plan to supply 70 trillion won (US$63 billion) in policy funds among others for three years as part of a business foundation promotion plan, but this time the figure has expanded to 80 trillion won (US$72 billion).
Yoo said that the government will vitalize venture start-ups to cement the foundation for the nation’s growth in the 7th meeting of economic ministers held at the government complex in Seoul on the day. The government decided to support venture businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by growth stage -- 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) in the business launching stage, 7.4 trillion won (US$6.6 billion) in the growth stage and 700 billion won (US$630 million) for the recovery and reattempt stage –- for three years.
If a future business founder’s technological prowess is verified, the government will intensively support the future business founder from his or her pre-foundation stage. The volume of a start-up guarantee for a would-be founder will be expanded from current 320 billion won (US$288) to 350 billion won (US$315 million). The government decided to vitalize well-prepared high-value-added business foundation by preparing special programs such as guarantees and credit loans of 800 billion won (US$720 million) in total for universities, public research institutes and skilled workers.
The government also decided to step up customized support to help start-up companies continue to grow. "I will introduce a set of three kinds of start-up support finance amounting to 100 billion won (US$90 million) -- the postponement of interest payment, low interest rates and credit loans – for companies 7 years old and younger," deputy prime minister Yoo said. Moreover, in the case that startups try to make investments for corporate growth through business expansion and R&D, the government will support funds and help them vitalize business reorganization and strengthen business competitiveness. At the same time, in order to make technology development connected into commercialization, the government will launch a 50-billion-won (US$ 45 million) R&BD program.
A 430-billion-won secondary fund will be additionally set up so that there will be no difficulties in both the fund collection and the reattempt stages. A procedure for the revival of a person with multiple debts will be simplified into one step from two.