Hana Bank said on Tuesday it signed a business agreement with the Korea Technology Finance Corp on Monday to provide productive financial support to foster future strategic industries (ABCDEF) in the Chungcheong region.

The agreement was designed to support stable business operations and growth for small and medium-sized enterprises based in the Chungcheong region that operate in national future strategic industries such as AI, bio, contents, defense, energy and factory.

To that end, Hana Bank will make a 1 billion won special contribution to the Korea Technology Finance Corp and, through its guarantee support, supply a total of 20 billion won in working capital to SMEs based in the Chungcheong region.

Eligible recipients are SMEs in Daejeon, Sejong, South Chungcheong and North Chungcheong that have technological capabilities and operate in future strategic industries.

Loans secured by a Korea Technology Finance Corp guarantee are available up to 300 million won. The Korea Technology Finance Corp will offer a preferential guarantee ratio of 100 percent and cut guarantee fees by 0.2 percentage point to reduce financing costs for SMEs.

Lee Dong-yeol (이동열), vice president of Hana Bank's Chungcheong Hana Group, who attended the signing ceremony, said the bank decided on the special contribution to support SMEs operating in future strategic industries in the central region (Daejeon, Sejong and Chungcheong), one of five mega-regions for balanced national growth. He said Hana Bank will continue its efforts to provide productive financial support to secure future growth engines for regional economies.