Recruitment of Companies for 'Overseas Certification Acquisition Support Project'... Up to 100 Million KRW Support

Source=Small and Medium Business Export Support Center website

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 3rd that it is recruiting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the 'Overseas Standard Certification Acquisition Support Project.'

This Overseas Standard Certification Acquisition Support Project was established to diversify overseas markets for export SMEs struggling due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and to lead the development of promising infection prevention and diagnostic industries.

The project supports a portion (50%~70%) of costs such as certification fees, testing fees, and consulting fees required to obtain overseas certifications demanded by export destination countries during export. The support rate is divided into 70% for companies with annual sales of 3 billion KRW or less and 50% for companies exceeding 3 billion KRW.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected 518 SMEs through the first recruitment in February this year, and plans to select and support 380 companies with a budget of about 6 billion KRW in this second phase. Eligible companies are SMEs with direct export amounts under 50 million USD in the previous year, and support is provided for up to 4 certifications per company within a limit of 100 million KRW for about 435 overseas certifications including European CE, US FDA, and Chinese NMPA. When applying for certifications from China, New Southern, and New Northern countries, up to 15 certifications can be applied for.

The Ministry plans to prioritize selecting 'first-step companies' with no prior experience in export support projects and 'Sobu-jang companies' (specialized in materials, parts, and equipment) within 10% of the budget each to expand their overseas market entry. In particular, due to the recent global spread of infectious diseases, priority support will be given to SMEs related to infection prevention and diagnostics urgently needing overseas standard certification acquisition, and support will be strengthened for SMEs facing difficulties such as export decline due to COVID-19.

The application period for participation in the Overseas Standard Certification Acquisition Support Project is from the 6th to the 29th of this month. Applications can be submitted online through the Small and Medium Business Export Support Center website.

Shim Jaeyoon, Director of the Global Growth Policy Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "In the first recruitment, 1,287 companies applied for support for 3,525 certifications, showing increasing demand for the Overseas Standard Certification Acquisition Project, and many success stories of participating companies' exports have emerged. We will continue to support SMEs' overseas market entry through this project."

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