Chairman Lee Eog-weon of the Financial Services Commission held a meeting with domestic petrochemical and refinery businesses on April 7 to talk about the challenging situation caused by ongoing conflict in the Middle East and discuss the availability of various assistance programs. Since the business operation of petrochemical and refinery businesses is directly hit by the strained oil supply from the Middle East, Chairman Lee explained that policy financial institutions and major banks have put forward plans to provide financial support in various forms. In this regard, policy financial institutions will provide KRW24.3 trillion worth of new loans to help resolve the liquidity problem of export and import businesses and their suppliers. Along this line, private financial companies have pledged to supply KRW53 trillion-plus in new loans and offer maturity extensions and payment deferments on existing loans to assist the businesses impacted by the ongoing war in the Middle East. Aside from these measures, there is also the P-CBO support program available for SMEs and MMEs and a collective investment scheme planned to be launched in support for the petrochemical and other key strategic industries.