Small and Medium Enterprises Meet Jeong Sye-gyun: "New Economic 3 No's Must Be Resolved... Differential Minimum Wage Needed"

Former Prime Minister Jeong Holds Dialogue with Small Business Owners on the 26th
"Urges Introduction of Linked Supply Price System"
Calls for Deregulation of Procurement Market, Working Hours, and Business Succession

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz), emphasized on the 26th that the new economic "3 No's" issues must be resolved when meeting with former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun.

Former Prime Minister Chung visited the Kbiz headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on the same day and held a dialogue with small and medium-sized business owners. This dialogue was arranged at the request of the SME sector. A Kbiz official stated, "We invited him to express our gratitude for the continuous communication during his tenure as Prime Minister to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and to ask him to continue being a strong supporter of SMEs even after returning to private life."

About 30 representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide attended the meeting, including Chairman Kim Ki-moon, Jung Yoon-sook, President of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association, chairpersons of industry-specific SME cooperatives, and regional SME association heads of Kbiz.

Chairman Kim said, "The structural problems that are currently the most challenging for small and medium-sized business owners are the new economic '3 No's': ▲ unfair trade ▲ market imbalance ▲ and unreasonable systems. Our society must resolve these issues to enable the Korean economy to leap forward again."

SME owners also shared recent industry issues, including difficulties related to the new economic "3 No's."

A small business owner operating a gas station said, "Although the economy is recovering, self-employed individuals are still uncertain when the effects of COVID-19 will end," and added, "When deciding the minimum wage, the payment capacity of SMEs and the type of industry or company size should be taken into account."

Complaints about the recent surge in raw material prices also followed. One SME owner said, "Raw material prices have skyrocketed recently, but large corporations delay price increases or only partially reflect price adjustments in new orders," and urged, "Please actively promote the introduction of a delivery price linkage system."

They also demanded correction of the irrationalities in the procurement market, where losses increase with more deliveries. A CEO of a water treatment machinery company stated, "The current procurement system needs improvement because provisions inducing the lowest bid and unreasonable estimated price calculation prevent companies from securing proper profits or result in excessive penalties."

SME owners proposed flexible working hours to respond adaptively to economic fluctuations and argued for measures to resolve issues of online platform monopolies and profit imbalances.

They also requested deregulation on business succession to revitalize SME succession, including freedom to change business types during succession, expansion of special gift tax limits, and deletion of imprisonment over one year and establishment of a maximum seven-year sentence limit for business owner penalties under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

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