"Women-Owned Businesses Account for 40%, but Sales Only Reach 9.8%... New Government Policies Needed"

Assemblywoman Han Mugyeong - Yeogyeonghyeop, Women's Enterprise Policy Forum
"Lack of comprehensive functions to address women's enterprise policies"
"Need to promote technology- and knowledge-centered women entrepreneurship"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] "Diverse policy combinations for women-owned businesses are urgently needed for sustainable growth after the COVID-19 pandemic." (Kim Geum-ja, CEO of Rollpack)

"We need to create a flexible working environment, such as promoting part-time work, and expand public support to enhance women's economic activities." (Yoo Hwan-ik, Head of Industry Division, Federation of Korean Industries)

On the 6th, Han Moo-kyung, a member of the People Power Party, and the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association co-hosted a policy forum at the National Assembly Members' Office Building under the theme "New Government Policy Directions and Tasks for Women-Owned Businesses."

On this day, political and business figures unanimously agreed that activating women-owned businesses is necessary to address low birth rates, aging population issues, job creation, and sustainable economic growth.

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, said in his congratulatory remarks, "Among women-owned businesses, which account for 40% of domestic companies, sectors such as wholesale and retail or service industries with low added value suffered enormous economic damage due to COVID-19."

He added, "We will take the lead not only in strengthening women's economic and social activity capabilities but also in creating a social atmosphere and conditions where economic activities are possible."

Han Mu-kyung, Member of the People Power Party / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Kim Ki-hyun, floor leader of the People Power Party, said, "Women-owned businesses can not only create employment for women but also serve as an excellent solution to issues such as career interruptions caused by employment instability and job shortages among women."

Lee Jeong-han, president of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association, said in the opening remarks, "We aim to gather wisdom to create effective new government policies for women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs who have faced difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

◆Women-Owned Businesses Account for 40%... But Sales Are Less Than 10% = At the forum, the current status of women-owned businesses was diagnosed, and pressing issues were examined. As of 2019, there were 2.77 million women-owned businesses, accounting for 40.2% of all companies.

However, the proportion of small businesses with low added value is high compared to male-owned businesses, resulting in sales of 551 trillion KRW, accounting for only 9.8% of the total. Male-owned businesses take 90.2% (5,054 trillion KRW) of total sales.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the main government agency, operates a women-owned business support budget based on the Women-Owned Business Support Act, which was 9.9 billion KRW in 2020, 8.8 billion KRW last year, and 8.8 billion KRW this year.

According to the "2021 Women-Owned Business Survey," the biggest management difficulty women-owned businesses face is securing sales channels and marketing management (48.6%), and the most needed government policy is "sales channel support system" (27.9%).

Kim Bo-rye, senior research fellow at the Women's Economic Research Institute, suggested, "Not only career interruptions and reemployment for women but also women’s entrepreneurship and fostering women-owned businesses should be considered together within the institutional framework."

Kim also said, "It is necessary to establish a system for nurturing excellent female entrepreneurs, resolve business difficulties such as securing sales channels, and build support budgets and infrastructure for women-owned businesses."

◆"Among Unicorns, Only 'Market Kurly' Is a Women-Owned Business" = Economic experts and business leaders pointed out that Korean women-owned businesses are mainly livelihood startups and emphasized the need for policy efforts to educate and nurture female entrepreneurs and resolve difficulties faced by women-owned businesses.

Kim Geum-ja, CEO of Rollpack, who has led companies for over 30 years, said, "Our country has focused on promoting women's rights and gender equality in women's policies," but "economic policies for women-owned businesses have been insufficient."

She pointed out the lack of ministries or functions that comprehensively handle women's economic policies and emphasized, "Diverse policy combinations for women-owned businesses are urgently needed for sustainable growth after the COVID-19 pandemic."

Lee Jeong-han, President of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association / Siheung = Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Professor Choi Ja-young of Soongsil University said, "Female entrepreneurs have a high proportion of career-interrupted women and livelihood startups, and they lack core resources and competencies such as human networks," adding, "Fundamental measures to enhance the capabilities of women-owned businesses are needed."

According to Professor Choi, the proportion of female venture capital (VC) investors is 8% in the U.S. and about 1% in Korea. He explained, "In the U.S., the more female investors there are, the higher the investment proportion in women-owned businesses and the better the management performance."

Yoo Hwan-ik, executive director of the Federation of Korean Industries, said, "Increasing women's economic activities will contribute to economic growth and potential growth rate improvement," and added, "It is necessary to activate technology- and knowledge-centered female entrepreneurship through in-house venture systems."

Kim Hee-chun, Director of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Among the 18 domestic unicorn companies, only one, 'Market Kurly,' is a women-owned business," and added, "We will provide support in sales channels and funding to enable active female entrepreneurship."

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