Minister Lee Young: "Goal to Recruit 6,000 Companies for the Payment Linked Pricing System"

Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups, attended the 'Payment Price Linkage System Roadshow Opening Ceremony' held on the 8th at the KT Umyeon Research Center in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Lee Young, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, announced on the 8th, "We will recruit 6,000 companion companies that wish to participate early in this year's Delivery Price Linkage System and provide various incentives."

Minister Lee made this statement at the 'Delivery Price Linkage System Roadshow Opening Ceremony' held at the KT Umyeon Research Center in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. This roadshow was organized to expand participation in the Delivery Price Linkage System, which is scheduled to be implemented in October. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to hold more than 30 roadshows hosted by cooperatives, associations, and regional SME venture business offices to continue explaining and promoting the linkage system.

Before the roadshow, a pre-event was held for the launch of the 'Linkage System On-site Settlement Task Force (TF).' This TF is a 'Season 2' type task force following the first TF that successfully led the pilot operation and legalization of the linkage system last year. It was established to firmly settle the linkage system in the corporate field.

Six SME-related cooperatives and associations newly joined this TF, including the Korea Federation of SMEs, Korea Venture Business Association, Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association, Innobiz Association, Mainbiz Association, and Korea Federation of SMEs Convergence. Going forward, the TF plans to promote the system through multi-faceted publicity, corporate consultations, and guidance by utilizing the member networks of each cooperative and association.

Minister Lee also expressed regret over the absence of large and medium-sized enterprise-related cooperatives and associations in this TF. He said, "While forming this TF, we actively requested participation from major economic organizations of large corporations, but they ultimately did not attend today," adding, "As the minister of the competent ministry, I am very disappointed."

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to expand the number of companies participating before the implementation of the linkage system to 6,000 by the end of this year through three strategies and detailed tasks: ▲holding the Delivery Price Linkage System roadshow ▲creating an atmosphere for participation by recruiting companion companies and operating a website ▲collecting industry opinions to prepare subordinate legislation.

For ‘companion companies’ that participate early in the linkage system, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Fair Trade Commission, and the Foundation for Large, Small, and Medium Business Cooperation and Agriculture-Fishery Cooperation plan to start joint efforts from the 9th. They will provide 16 incentives to entrusted companies or original contractors participating as companion companies, including additional points in various support projects, reflection of performance in the Win-Win Growth Index and Fair Trade Agreement implementation evaluation, and interest rate reduction loans worth 1 trillion KRW (Industrial Bank of Korea). Furthermore, additional incentives will be provided by selecting excellent linkage companies among the companion companies.

Meanwhile, the amended Win-Win Cooperation Act for the introduction of the Delivery Price Linkage System was promulgated on the 3rd of last month and is scheduled to be enforced on October 4th.

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