Park Won-soon Returns to the Korea Federation of SMEs... "Committed to Strengthening SME Competitiveness"

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon (left) is giving a greeting at an emergency meeting related to COVID-19 held on March 2 this year at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business in Yeouido, Seoul. On the right is Kim Ki-moon, President of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, stated on the 1st, "In the second half of this year, we will focus on strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to overcome the COVID-19 crisis." Mayor Park made these remarks at a policy meeting invited by the Mayor of Seoul, held at the boardroom of the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul.

In March, Mayor Park also met with Kim Ki-moon, President of the Korea Federation of SMEs, at the Federation to agree on close cooperation to overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis and revitalize domestic demand to restore economic vitality. At this meeting, 10 urgent issues were proposed to resolve difficulties faced by SMEs and cooperatives in the Seoul area. The urgent issues include ▲support for establishing a global marketing export support center ▲relaxation of mandatory usage ratio and period regulations for designated use in the Sangam DMC area ▲expansion of small business product purchases through the cooperative recommendation system ▲expansion of eligibility and amount for the Yellow Umbrella Hope Incentive ▲support for maintenance and management of air pollutant emission prevention facilities, among others.

Kim Ki-moon, President of the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "We highly appreciate Seoul City's commitment to overcoming COVID-19, including 'support for SMEs and small business owners,' 'fostering promising startups,' and 'efforts to turn crisis into opportunity in the post-COVID era.' Amid the difficult global economic situation caused by COVID-19, our SMEs, based on their tenacious vitality, will surely overcome the crisis. We hope Seoul City will devise special measures to help small businesses and small business owners maintain at least a minimum sales base."

In response, Mayor Park said, "To overcome COVID-19, it is very important to maintain the sales base of socially and economically vulnerable small businesses and small business owners, to restore their will to survive and become independent, and to strengthen their competitiveness." He added, "In the second half of this year, we will devote ourselves to fostering 'promising startups,' nurturing strong small enterprises to enhance global competitiveness, and strengthening SME competitiveness through smart manufacturing innovation to overcome the COVID-19 crisis."

Attending the meeting were Kim Nam-su, President of the Seoul Small and Medium Business Association; Kim Young-shin, Head of the Seoul Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration; Jung Min-oh, Head of the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office; Kang Kyung-hoon, Head of the Seoul Regional Public Procurement Service; and representatives of SMEs in the Seoul area.

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