Public Enthusiasm Grows for Citizen Participation in SME Technology Strategy Item Recommendations

Expectations for Promoting Commercialization of Outcomes through National Demand-Driven Technology Development

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 21st that the public showed high responsiveness to the 'National Technology Demand Survey' and 'Online Discussion (hereinafter referred to as Jaming)' newly introduced this year to reflect the public's technology demands in the process of establishing technology development strategies for small and medium enterprises.

Since 2010, the Ministry has designated technology development focus items suitable for SMEs through the 'SME Technology Roadmap' and has been providing linked support of 150 billion KRW annually for technology development funds to enable SMEs to develop these items. Until now, when designating focus items for SMEs, the technology development demands of developing companies were mainly reflected, but from this year, to enhance the public's perception of the effects of technology development support, the Ministry piloted the public participation methods of 'online surveys' and 'Jaming.'

In the online survey, the general public proposed 511 technologies, and 625 people participated in Jaming, resulting in 815 technology proposals and 7,370 discussions. SMEs participating in the demand survey proposed many technologies applicable to industrial sites, such as security technology and autonomous driving robots. The public mainly proposed technologies closely related to daily life, such as support technologies for dementia and elderly living alone, and intelligent digital crime prevention. In particular, due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), there was high interest in the bio-healthcare field related to remote medical care, such as non-face-to-face disease diagnosis platform technologies.

Based on the technology demands actively participated in by the public, the Ministry plans to select focus items for SMEs and conduct a thorough analysis of technological feasibility and marketability, and announce the SME Technology Roadmap for 2021-2023 in December. Cho Hee-su, head of the Ministry's Technology Policy Division, said, "As the technology demands of the final users, the public, are reflected in SME technology development products, rapid commercialization is expected," and added, "The public's high responsiveness to the public participation policy method piloted this year will lead to its institutionalization, and it will be applied to the policy-making process in other fields closely related to the public's daily life."

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