OECD Evaluates South Korea's COVID-19 Response for SMEs' Successful Digitalization

Held Online Seminar with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups
Focused on COVID-19 Digital Transformation Support Policies

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) evaluated the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' support policies focused on non-face-to-face and online measures during the COVID-19 crisis as successful. The photo shows the seminar held on the 30th by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the OECD. Photo by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] "Taking COVID-19 as an opportunity, the Korean government has actively supported the adoption of digital technology, not only achieving the goal of enhancing the resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) but also addressing the sluggish digitalization issues among SMEs."

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) evaluated the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' (MSS) non-face-to-face and online-centered support policies during the COVID-19 crisis as successful.

On the 30th, the OECD stated at an online seminar co-hosted with the MSS, "Despite Korea's excellent digital infrastructure, before COVID-19, Korean SMEs had low utilization of cloud services and participation in e-commerce, limited use of remote work, and significant generational digital capability gaps."

At the seminar, the MSS released a report titled 'Strengthening SME Resilience through Digitalization: The Case of Korea.' The report analyzed the MSS's digital transformation support policies by categorizing newly introduced 'structural policies' for COVID-19 response and existing digital transformation policies for manufacturing and small business sectors as 'sectoral policies.'

The 'structural policies' included ▲the introduction of the non-face-to-face service voucher project in 2020 ▲establishment of shared video conference rooms ▲creation of the 'Value We Buy' online platform for small businesses ▲online trade exhibitions ▲and operation of the integrated SME service portal 'SME Venture 24.'

Particularly, the report introduced Samsung Electronics' support for building win-win smart factories as part of the 'Caring Companies' agreement and cooperation in developing diagnostic kits, masks, and low-residual syringes for vaccination by SMEs.

Regarding 'sectoral policies,' attention was drawn to the promotion of building 30,000 smart factories and the optimization and expansion of utilization bases for manufacturing data generated from smart factories through AI-based manufacturing platforms.

Kang Sungcheon, Vice Minister of MSS, said, "Based on Korea's digital infrastructure and innovative technologies, we will continue efforts to solve inherent problems of SMEs and bridge the digital gap between generations. We will actively cooperate with the OECD and the international community on SME and small business digital transformation policies, experiences, and the dissemination of smart technologies."

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