TIPA, Support for Strengthening Capabilities of Promising Export SMEs

Announcement of '2021 Export Support Program' and Recruitment of Participating Companies until the 17th of Next Month

Lee Jae-hong, President of the Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA, right), is touring a small and medium-sized enterprise site.
[Photo by TIPA]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) announced the '2021 Export Support Program' on the 20th to support promising export SMEs in their overseas expansion, and will recruit participating companies from the 29th of this month until July 17.

TIPA's export support program has been implemented since last year to discover and support promising export companies that wish to enter overseas markets but lack global capabilities, thereby promoting the overseas expansion of small and medium-sized venture businesses.

Selected companies will be supported to resolve issues that are difficult to solve at the individual company level, such as △ risk of non-payment of export proceeds, △ shortage of export execution funds, and △ difficulty in verifying buyer creditworthiness when exporting overseas.

Last year, 169 companies were discovered and supported through various export support methods including export risk management (group insurance subscription, insurance premium discounts), credit investigation support (support for overseas importer credit investigation reports), export consulting, export execution funds, and guarantee support for early cash conversion of export proceeds. This year, the support scale will be expanded to support about 200 companies in total.

To apply for this program, companies must currently be conducting SME technology innovation (R&D) support projects or have received an R&D 'success' evaluation after January 1, 2016, and have export plans within the next year.

Companies selected for the program will receive customized support through cooperation with the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure), including △ group insurance to mitigate the risk of non-payment of export proceeds, △ one-on-one export consulting for new export companies, and △ provision of reports on overseas company credit investigations.

However, the support content for each company will be determined based on factors such as export performance, and support may be restricted if disqualifying reasons are found during insurance and guarantee screening processes.

Lee Jae-hong, President of TIPA, said, "R&D-performing companies face difficulties due to lack of information and expertise when starting exports, but we will actively support them to grow into global companies through support such as the export support program."

Applications can be submitted until 6 p.m. on July 17, and detailed information can be found in the recruitment announcement on the SME Technology Development Support Project comprehensive management system website.

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