Companies, local governments support year-end parties

[Anchor]

To help small business owners who have been hit hard, more companies and local governments are encouraging year-end parties.

Some are supporting dining expenses, while others are considering closing their cafeterias.

Next is reporter Oh Dae-seong.

[Report]

6 PM, the end of a workday.

Employees of a credit card company gather in the lobby.

A department year-end party scheduled a month ago.

They considered canceling it due to the martial law and impeachment situation, but decided to proceed as planned.

[Lee Geun-ho/Team Leader, Hyundai Card: "We noticed a significant decrease in foot traffic around the company, which showed how tough the situation is. Despite concerns about the current atmosphere, we decided to go ahead with gatherings to encourage and support each other during difficult times."]

The Gwangju City Hall is considering closing its cafeteria.

4,000 won per meal.

Thanks to the low price, it is usually crowded with employees and visitors, but they believe it is more urgent to help the restaurants around the government building.

They are negotiating with the union to aim for closing one day a week.

[Lee Eun-sook/Restaurant Owner: "If the city hall staff could come out even once a week and bring in about five people, it would be a great help. Not just for my restaurant, but for others as well."]

The Korea Federation of SMEs has decided to support 30,000 won for employee dining expenses.

This is a different approach compared to previous years, where they asked to refrain from excessive year-end gatherings.

[Choo Mun-gap/Head of Economic Policy Division, Korea Federation of SMEs: "Since consumption is down, the damage ultimately falls heavily on small business owners. We encourage gatherings and suggest that instead of traveling abroad, which has become more expensive due to exchange rates, it would be better to travel domestically during the year-end and New Year."]

KB Financial Group and Woori Financial Group also encouraged year-end gatherings at the company level, while financial authorities announced that starting in February next year, the credit card transaction fee rate for 3.05 million small and medium-sized merchants with annual sales of 3 billion won or less will be reduced by up to 0.1 percentage points.

This is KBS News, Oh Dae-seong.