The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced today that it will provide support for small business owners who are suffering from severe management difficulties due to the spread of Corona19 by August to suspend rent payments and reduce administrative expenses.

The City of Seoul has decided to apply a moratorium on the payment of rent to 11 stores that are not yet due for rent and those that are past due.

Target malls include Gangnam Terminal, Yeongdeungpo Rotary, Jonggak, Eulji-ro, Jong-o, Sogong, Hoehyeon, Dongdaemun, Jamsil Station, Cheonggye 6-ga, and Inhyeon Underground Shopping Mall. There are 1,761 stores.

The city also decided to temporarily reduce the tenant's burden of expenses and cleaning labor costs among the administrative expenses items, and reduce the merchant burden of a total of 1.1 billion won in the total of 395,000 yen per store and the whole mall.

In addition, we plan to find additional management expenses to reduce the burden on tenants, and to prepare additional measures to improve the system of imposing administrative expenses.

Seoul has been disinfecting the underground shopping malls using the late-night hours every week from the 5th of this month.

The city also said it urged the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to revise the Enforcement Decree of the Public Property Act to allow local merchants to be exempt from rent payments even if local merchants face severe management difficulties due to natural disasters or other disasters.

Kim Hak-jin, head of Seoul's head of safety, said, "I hope this reduction can be of some help to the underpass merchants who are in trouble due to the stagnation of offline commercial space caused by the growth of the online market and the double-tripping evil caused by Corona 19." We will continue to reinforce practical support and actively help the underpass merchants find vitality. ”