Next Month, 60 'Smart Gongbang' Selected... Up to 50 Million KRW Support

Promotion of Productivity and Quality Improvement for Small Manufacturers

Source=Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 25th that it will select an additional 60 Smart Workshop projects next month and support technology introduction costs up to 50 million KRW per company.

Smart Workshop is a project that supports small manufacturers (manufacturing businesses with fewer than 10 employees) in improving their primarily manual manufacturing processes through partial automation using artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as the introduction of production management systems, thereby promoting productivity and quality enhancement.

In the first half of this year, 20 small manufacturers were selected and the project is currently underway. It was also included as a Digital New Deal task (3rd supplementary budget) in the 'Korean New Deal Comprehensive Plan' announced by the government last month. For the second half 'Small Manufacturer Smart Workshop Technology Dissemination' project, which closed applications on the 14th, 289 small manufacturers applied, recording a competition rate of 4.8 to 1.

For this Smart Workshop selection, small manufacturers from 21 manufacturing sectors across 17 cities and provinces nationwide applied. The competition rate is more than double that of the first half. By region, the metropolitan area showed strong interest with 'Gyeonggi' at 41.5% (120 applications), 'Seoul' at 10.3% (30 applications), and 'Incheon' at 5.5% (16 applications). This was followed by 'Chungnam' at 7.2% (21 applications), and 'Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon' each at 4.5% (13 applications each).

By industry, applications were highest in 'Food Manufacturing' at 13.5% (39 applications), followed by 'Other Product Manufacturing' at 11.8% (34 applications), 'Metal Fabricated Product Manufacturing' at 9.3% (27 applications), and 'Other Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing' at 8.6% (25 applications).

No Gisu, Director of the Regional Commercial Area Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "This year’s Smart Workshop is a pioneering project to promote the digital transformation of small manufacturers, and we expect it to contribute to manufacturing innovation across our industry in the future." He added, "We plan to make the 80 small manufacturers supported this year a standard model for Smart Workshops and continuously expand the program with the goal of nurturing 10,000 Smart Workshops by 2025."

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