[2020 National Audit] Park Young-sun: "Ministry of SMEs Leads Digital Economy... Will Realize Values of Coexistence and Win-Win"

2020 National Assembly Industry Committee Audit of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, said on the 8th, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will lead the ‘great transition to the digital economy’ as a pioneering ministry and realize the value of ‘coexistence and mutual growth’ to create a country where small business owners, SMEs, and large corporations all prosper together.”

At the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee’s audit of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held that day, Minister Park said, “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the restructuring toward a digital economy has accelerated in all sectors, and we will actively promote the smart transformation of SMEs, venture companies, and small business owners.”

He stated, “By 2022, we will distribute 30,000 smart factories to expand the manufacturing innovation ecosystem and create 1,000 cutting-edge smart factories based on 5G+AI (artificial intelligence),” adding, “We will nurture K-non-face-to-face innovative venture companies, which have proven their growth potential amid the COVID-19 crisis, into Korea’s third-generation innovative companies leading the global market.”

He continued, “To leap into one of the four major venture countries, we will foster a private-led startup and venture ecosystem,” and said, “We will strengthen the foundation for discovering and nurturing innovative startups through collaboration with global companies and strive to achieve 20 unicorn companies by next year through the K-Unicorn nurturing strategy.”

Regarding the disbursement of the Small Business New Hope Fund, he said, “Through the closure re-challenge encouragement fund, we are supporting 200,000 people by linking various employment and re-startup programs so that small business owners who have closed their businesses can find hope for a new start.”

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Small Business New Hope Fund was paid to 1.84 million people with a total of 1.9746 trillion won by the 29th of last month, just before the Chuseok holiday.

As of the 20th of last month, 548,000 loans worth 14.3 trillion won were executed through the first financial support program for small business owners, and 63,000 loans worth 700 billion won were disbursed through the second financial support program. The second financial support program is being conducted on a scale of 10 trillion won.

For 189,400 small business stores, including those visited by COVID-19 confirmed patients and temporarily closed stores, 247 billion won was provided as reopening costs.

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