Recruitment of First Round Participants for the Export Voucher Program Supporting Export SMEs

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration is recruiting the first round of participating companies for the '2021 Export Voucher Project' from the 9th to January 15th next year to support the growth and innovation of domestic and export SMEs.

This recruitment plans a budget of 73.3 billion KRW, about 70% of the total export voucher budget of 106.4 billion KRW for next year, and will select and support approximately 150 companies nationwide.

Since 2017, the 'Export Voucher Project' has been a marketing support project for overseas expansion, where companies can receive export support services by selecting desired services and executing agencies (service providers) from 12 overseas marketing service menus such as design development, promotion, buyer discovery, exhibitions, and certification through vouchers (in the form of online points) composed of government subsidies and company contributions.

This project is open to all SMEs under the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises (excluding some industries such as gambling).

Additionally, recruitment is divided into 'Growth Vouchers' supporting export growth stages such as ▲domestic ▲beginner ▲promising ▲growth, and 'Innovation Vouchers' strategically supporting companies driving innovative growth such as ▲Brand K companies ▲regulatory free zone resident companies ▲smart factory distribution companies ▲startups ▲global small giants ▲new industry and K-Bio companies.

Companies finally selected for the export voucher project will receive export vouchers ranging from 30 million KRW to a maximum of 100 million KRW depending on the previous year's export scale. These companies can freely use multiple overseas marketing services necessary throughout the export process such as export strategy, design, promotion, and certification through certified executing agencies using the provided vouchers.

In particular, companies selected for the innovation voucher (excluding startup vouchers) are supported up to 100 million KRW regardless of the previous year's export scale, according to the company's demand, unlike the growth voucher.

The startup voucher supports 30 million KRW (70% subsidy rate) regardless of export scale.

The first round of applications can be submitted online through the Export Support Base Utilization Project (Export Voucher) website during the announcement period.

Detailed information is also available on the same website, and specific inquiries can be made to the SME Administration Export Support Center.

Kim Gi-dae, Head of Growth Support Division at Gwangju-Jeonnam SME Administration, said, “The export voucher project is the largest support project among local and central government export support projects, and we will do our best to provide practical help to local SMEs whose exports have been shrinking recently due to COVID-19.”

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