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| South Korean workers set up Korean letters to encourage the small and medium enterprises in front of the Industrial Bank of Korea in Seoul, South Korea. | ||
Small and medium enterprises(SME) are faced with the record high in getting paid by the bill for at least half of their delivery of goods to major corporations in Korea.
This leads to even more pressure on SME's finance owing to the recent economic depression and credit crunch.
Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business(KFSME) released the report on Monday that 418 Korean SME surveyed said they received debt bills for at least 45.1 percent sales in 4th quarter of 2008.
It automatically means that only 54.9 percent in sales was made by cash payment including L/C and a security.
The ratio of getting a bill to cashables for the payment hit the record highest ever since the survey started in 2002. This ration is 1.4 percent higher than the one during the1st quarter of 2004 , which was the previous highest record of 43.7 percent.
And the SMEs take average 128.1 days to write off the bills they received from their clients to get paid.
Literally speaking, they receive the payments 4 months after the delivery waiting more than in 3rd quarter last year when they used to expect the cash for average 127.5 days.
An officer from KFSME said that the payments by a bill instead of the cashable continue to rise because even major corporation are struggling with the financial crisis lead by the economic recession and low demand in domestic market.
And he added that SME are cornered with the difficulty in finding the funds for labour and facility maintenance apart from the high interest rates to get the bank loan.
By Kirim Shin
신기림 기자 kirimi99@ajnews.co.kr
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