Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Industry, Meets SMEs to Discuss Export and SoBuJang Strengthening Plans

The person wearing a red necktie is Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy./Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] On the 30th, Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, will meet with about 30 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) representatives, including Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy stated that Minister Sung will visit the Korea Federation of SMEs, emphasizing the need to communicate with the SME sector, which is the foundation of our economy, despite external variables such as global protectionism and Japan's export restrictions, as well as the challenging domestic export, investment, and employment conditions.

Minister Sung will introduce the industrial policy direction aimed at revitalizing key industries and strengthening the industrial value chain, and listen to opinions regarding difficulties and suggestions faced by SMEs.

At the meeting, Minister Sung is expected to emphasize, "The role of SMEs is more important than anything else to turn the economic crisis into an opportunity and accelerate innovative growth."

He plans to state, "We will establish a resilient industrial structure through stabilizing the supply of 100 core items in materials, parts, and equipment (SoBuJang), discovering and supporting cooperation models between demand and supply companies."

He will also say, "Our exports have been gradually improving since hitting a low point in October last year. The daily average export performance, excluding the impact of working days this month, has turned positive (+) for the first time in 14 months, strengthening the momentum for export recovery."

He will add, "We plan to operate a full support system to achieve positive export growth in the first quarter and improve export structure. In particular, we will actively support SMEs to play a central role in our export recovery."

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, expressed gratitude to the SMEs and the government who have strived for the independence of the SoBuJang industry in response to Japan's export restrictions, emphasizing, "To strengthen the value chain of our industry, including SoBuJang equipment, it is necessary for demand and supply companies, the government, and related organizations to pool their capabilities and make continuous efforts."

He urged, "When promoting policies such as environmental and labor regulations and smart manufacturing, it is necessary to strategically approach by considering the response capabilities of SMEs in the field."

The SME sector proposed activating SoBuJang technology development, expanding the number of countries signing Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA) to support SME overseas expansion, improving systems to activate service group standards, and overseas safety certifications.

Group standards are standards established and operated by private organizations regarding terminology, performance, procedures, and methods applied to public safety, consumer protection, and specific specialized fields.

Minister Sung is expected to respond to these proposals by saying, "To strengthen the competitiveness of the SoBuJang industry, we will enhance cooperation and technology development support between demand and supply companies, and steadily increase the number of countries signing free trade agreements (FTAs) such as CEPA, focusing on emerging markets like New Southern and New Northern regions, to support our companies' pioneering of emerging markets."

He will emphasize, "To activate certification of service group standards, we will organize the system by specifying certification procedures, and to reduce the burden on our companies regarding safety certification and patent examination, we plan to continuously expand the implementation countries of mutual recognition of safety certification and the Patent Prosecution Highway."

The Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) is an agreement where a country accepts test and certification results and procedures conducted by the counterpart country as if they were conducted domestically.

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a system that allows accelerated patent examination by utilizing the examination results of the counterpart country for patents filed commonly in the implementing countries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.