SEOUL, April 5 (Korea Bizwire) — In the aftermath of the Constitutional Court’s historic ruling to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, small business owners across South Korea expressed cautious optimism that the political turmoil that gripped the country for the past four months might finally ease—though few expect an immediate turnaround in the [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s decision to designate January 27 as a temporary public holiday has extended the Lunar New Year break to six consecutive days, sparking a surge in travel demand while causing concerns among small business owners in the food and beverage industry. The travel industry is witnessing a sharp increase [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul city government said Monday it will offer exceptional incentives to small and medium-sized companies that implement childbirth and child care promotion systems, such as payment of money gifts for birth and flexible work hours. Incentives, such as the supply of replacement workers, extra allowances for co-workers of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged on Thursday to implement various policy support measures aimed at assisting small business owners and vulnerable groups struggling with loan repayments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yoon made the remarks during a government-public debate, the 10th in a series of sessions [...]
SEOUL, June 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The “Yellow Umbrella” support system, a mutual aid fund for small businesses in South Korea, has made significant disbursements this year to businesses that are shutting down. Benefits were paid out to companies going out of business in a total of 48,000 cases between January and May this year, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of small companies in South Korea edged down 0.1 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The number of small businesses reached 4.11 million in 2021, down 10,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid growing market demand for the release of data about owner-operated businesses, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) decided to make public such data held by public financial institutions starting from Friday. Five public financial institutions, including the Industrial Bank of Korea and the Korea Development Bank, under the umbrella [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – Small owner-operated businesses are facing a crisis after relying on loans to survive the pandemic. South Korean credit service provider NICE Information Service reported that loans for sole proprietorships exceeded 688 trillion won (US$480 billion) as of late June this year, which was 8 percent more than late last [...]
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Small businesses have seen rising sales after the government has lifted the outdoor mask mandate, data showed Thursday. Fintech firm Korea Credit Data reported that small merchants saw their average sales rise by 7.3 percent in the first week after outdoor mask rules were lifted (May 2 to 8), [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Last year, owner-operated businesses without any employees struggled in the third quarter, more so than in the first year of the pandemic era. Among all households across the country with more than one member, those with owner-operated businesses without any employees earned an average of 2,701,958 won (US$2,252) each [...]