Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Korea SMEs and Startups Agency Establish Measures to Eradicate Fraud in Export Voucher Program

Institutional Improvements to Eliminate Blind Spots in Cheating Inspections and Strengthen Post-Penalty Measures

Small and Medium Business Corporation

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) and the Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter referred to as SBC) announced on the 14th that they will strengthen supervision by establishing measures to eradicate fraudulent activities in the Export Voucher Program.

Implemented since 2017, the Export Voucher Program allows companies to freely select desired services and executing agencies from an overseas marketing service menu using vouchers (in the form of online points) composed of government subsidies and company contributions, thereby receiving export support. For companies supported by the Export Voucher Program this year, export volume from January to September increased by 13.6% compared to the same period last year, and 41.8% of domestic companies with no prior export performance succeeded in new exports. The Export Voucher Program thus serves as a foothold for SMEs and startups to pioneer overseas markets.

However, SBC recognizes the risk of fraudulent activities between participating companies and executing agencies, which could lead to a decline in service quality. Therefore, through strengthened management of the voucher program, it plans to enhance the effectiveness of support for exporting SMEs. The main contents of the strengthened management measures to eradicate fraud include ▲conducting random sampling inspections by service sector at any time ▲introducing a blockchain-based management system to improve transparency ▲strengthening management by designating additional comprehensive specialized agencies for each service ▲revising related procedures such as supplementing standard contracts and reinforcing review of result reports ▲and enhancing integrity education.

In particular, for serious fraudulent cases, a one-strike-out system will be introduced that permanently bans participation in the Export Voucher Program upon a single detection. Penalty fees up to five times the amount involved in the fraud will be imposed, and in severe cases, strong sanctions such as criminal charges will be applied to raise awareness. Additionally, to prevent fraud in advance, regular integrity education will be conducted for participating companies and executing agencies, and newly selected participants will be required to complete integrity education as a mandatory condition.

Kim Hak-do, Chairman of SBC, stated, "Before implementing the strengthened management measures to eradicate fraud, we will inform the executing agencies and participating companies of the Export Voucher Program about these measures and precautions to minimize the possibility of fraudulent activities." He added, "We will continuously enhance the effectiveness of the program by taking strong actions such as restricting participation, recovering subsidies, and criminal prosecution upon detection of fraud, so that the purpose of the program is not undermined by the fraudulent acts of some companies."

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