6 out of 10 SMEs Say "Yoon Seok-yeol Will Effectively Implement SME Policies"

Korea Federation of SMEs Announces Survey Results on SMEs and Small Business Owners
"Need to Strengthen Communication with Industry... Focus on Overcoming COVID-19 Crisis"
"Improve Labor Regulations Such as the 52-Hour Workweek and Serious Accident Punishment Act"

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Six out of ten small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expect President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol to effectively implement his campaign promises for SMEs.

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced the results of the "Expectations for the 20th President: Opinions of SMEs and Small Business Owners" survey conducted on 300 SMEs and small business owners on the 14th.

The survey showed that 58.7% of the responding companies, or six out of ten, expected the president-elect to successfully carry out SME policy pledges.

The most important factor for implementing SME policy pledges was "strengthening communication with the SME sector," accounting for 43.3%. This was followed by "participation of the SME sector in the national policy planning process (19.7%)" and "boosting morale through awards for SME representatives and workers (19.0%)."

The key national agenda that the new government should focus on to revitalize the economy was "overcoming the COVID-19 crisis," with 49.3% of respondents selecting this. Next were "job creation (37.3%)," "resolving the polarization between large and small businesses and improving unfair trade practices (33.0%)," and "expanding growth potential (26.7%)."

The top priority task among the president's SME policy pledges was "improving labor regulations such as the 52-hour workweek system and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act," at 49.0%. This was followed by "resolving polarization between large and small businesses (creating an environment for fair payment of delivery prices) (48.3%)," "supporting companies affected by COVID-19 (32.7%)," and "supporting smooth business succession (15.3%)."

Although not reflected in the pledges, the tasks that must be adopted as SME policies included "protecting the business areas of SMEs and small business owners (65.0%)," "improving the lowest-price bidding system (41.3%)," "reducing excessive online platform fees (29.7%)," and "expanding small-scale contracts recommended by cooperatives (24.0%)."

Kim Ki-moon, chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, "We hope that through improvements in labor regulations such as the 52-hour workweek system and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, as well as resolving polarization between large and small businesses, an era of SME growth will be created where 6.88 million SMEs become the center of employment and growth."

Meanwhile, the survey was conducted via telephone over two days starting from the 10th, with a sampling error of ±5.66 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

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