SMEs Offer Suggestions to Next President... "SME Policies Are the Real Growth Policies"

A small to medium-sized manufacturing company located in Gimpo, Gyeonggi.
Photo by Lee Junhyung

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Junhyung] On the 8th, the Small and Medium Business Association Council announced the 'Proposals from the SME Sector for the 20th Presidential Election.' The council is a consultative body composed of 16 associations and organizations, including the Korea Federation of SMEs, the Korea Specialty Contractors Association, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Associations, and the Korea Foodservice Industry Association. The council plans to deliver these proposals to the policy committees of both ruling and opposition parties as well as to each presidential candidate's campaign team.

Through the proposals, the council stated, "A happy society for the people starts with economic stability," and added, "Policies for SMEs, which account for 99.9% of all companies and 82.7% of total employment, are true welfare and growth policies." In fact, the role of SMEs in the industry is significant. According to the council, over the past 20 years, the value-added growth rate of SMEs was 6.6%, higher than that of large corporations (5.9%). The number of jobs created by SMEs in the last five years was 1.4 million, more than three times that of large corporations (410,000).

However, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of SMEs have faced management crises. The council pointed out, "The level of digital transformation of domestic SMEs ranks only 6th among 14 Asia-Pacific countries," and "productivity also falls short of the OECD average." Additionally, the council explained that in some industries, unfair trade has increased due to platform monopolies, exacerbating polarization.

In response, the council presented five major agendas related to SMEs to the next government. The council selected ▲ Innovation Transition ▲ Growth Promotion ▲ Infrastructure Establishment ▲ Safety Net Expansion ▲ Regional Economy Revitalization as the five key agendas and proposed 56 related implementation tasks.

Kim Gi-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "The biggest issue in our economy right now is the low growth of SMEs caused by unfairness and polarization," adding, "Investment in SMEs is blocked, and workers' wages are not increasing." Chairman Kim emphasized, "The next government must resolve these issues and achieve a great transformation that allows SMEs to grow."

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