FSC Discusses Policy Finance Support in Daegu... About 80 Businesses from Daegu and Gyeongbuk Attend

Held 'Policy Finance Partnership' Event with Six Policy Finance Institutions
National Growth Fund to Expand to 40 Trillion Won a Year; Regional Businesses' Financing Concerns Heard

The Financial Services Commission introduced policy finance support programs to businesses in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions and heard about their financing difficulties, together with six policy finance institutions.

The FSC said it held the second “Policy Finance Partnership” event in Daegu on November 13 with six institutions: the Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Export-Import Bank of Korea, and Korea Technology Finance Corporation.

Following the first event in Daejeon last June, this second event was organized to have the six policy finance institutions visit regional industrial sites in person, hear about businesses’ financing difficulties, and discuss ways to support them.

About 80 businesses from Daegu and Gyeongbuk, along with officials from the FSC, policy finance institutions, and regional chambers of commerce, attended the event. Participants shared the results of preferential financing for regional businesses and discussed ways to expand policy finance tailored to regional industries.

An Chang-guk, a standing commissioner of the FSC, said, “The Daegu-Gyeongbuk region is a key hub for future industries, with concentrated capabilities in materials and components for advanced industries such as semiconductors, mobility, and robotics. The future competitiveness of our advanced industries depends on the development of regional industries in Daegu and Gyeongbuk.”

Park Sangjin, chairman of the Korea Development Bank, then explained the purpose of the event, while the Korea Development Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea presented the main features of the National Growth Fund and preferential regional financing, along with their support results.

They said they plan to expand the National Growth Fund’s operating scale to 40 trillion won annually starting next year, for a total of more than 200 trillion won over five years. Key examples of support from the fund included a 300 billion won loan for vaccine research and development (R&D) and the expansion of a production plant in Gyeongbuk, and a 220 billion won loan to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode-materials production plant in Daegu.

Regional policy finance figures were also released. The Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, and Korea Technology Finance Corporation supplied 95.8 trillion won to areas outside the Seoul metropolitan region through October this year. The institutions forecast that they would meet their target for the share of financing supplied to regional areas by the end of the year.

Businesses based in Daegu and Gyeongbuk and the head of a Daegu regional chamber of commerce then exchanged views on on-site challenges and ways to revitalize regional finance. The six policy finance institutions also operated separate consultation booths to provide financial consultations tailored to individual businesses.

An FSC official said, “The six policy finance institutions will continue to hold Policy Finance Partnership events in major cities across different regions in sequence. In coordination with the FSC, local governments, and others, we plan to continue expanding direct engagement with regional businesses.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.