More Than Half of Small and Medium Enterprises Say "ESG Management is Necessary"

KOSME Issue Focus... Survey Results on ESG Response Trends of Small and Medium Venture Enterprises

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] More than half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) recognize the need to prepare for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management. The Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter referred to as SBC) announced this on the 14th by publishing 'KOSME Issue Focus,' which analyzed the results of the SME ESG response trend survey.

According to the survey results, 58.0% of respondent companies recognized the need to prepare for ESG management. However, three out of four companies (74.3%) responded that they either 'have no plan to prepare for ESG response or plan to prepare,' while only 25.7% responded that they were 'prepared or in preparation.'

The proportion of companies that have an organization dedicated to ESG management (5.3%) or have plans to establish one in the future (18.3%) was 23.7%, indicating a somewhat low level of preparation among SMEs. The most challenging ESG area to prepare for was the environment (47.7%), followed by social (32.8%) and governance (15.1%). In particular, companies found it difficult to implement measures in greenhouse gas reduction and resource consumption reduction such as energy, highlighting the need for active policy support for low-carbon and eco-friendly transitions.

Additionally, companies cited cost burden (37.0%), lack of professional personnel (22.7%), absence of guidelines (16.3%), and lack of confidence in the necessity of introduction (10.0%) as difficulties in adopting ESG management. As for policy support needed for ESG management transition, respondents ranked policy funds (53.3%), diagnosis and consulting (38.3%), and provision of information such as guidelines (29.7%) in that order.

Chairman Kim Hak-do stated, "Through this Issue Focus, we were able to understand that SMEs recognize ESG management as a factor directly linked to corporate competitiveness and identify the difficulties they face. SBC will actively support the ESG management transition of SMEs by utilizing various policy tools such as funding, diagnosis and consulting, technical support, and workforce development."

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