The Key Pillar of Regional Economic Growth, Pohang City Invites You to Challenge for 'Promising Small Giants'!

Recruitment of New Promising Small Giants, Support System Segmented by Company Size and Growth Stage

Expansion of 'Pre Promising Small Giants' Selection ... Fostering Promising Companies in Future Core Industries

Pohang City will begin accepting new applications for the ‘2023 Pohang Promising Small and Strong Enterprises’ starting from the 17th, targeting companies with future growth potential and technological competitiveness.

Signboard of Pohang City's Promising Small and Medium Enterprise.

The selection of promising small and strong enterprises undergoes a strict four-step process including eligibility screening, on-site evaluation, presentation evaluation, and comprehensive evaluation. Selected companies will receive various benefits such as ▲customized corporate support through management diagnosis and growth strategy consulting ▲strengthening R&D capabilities via the Project Manager (PM) system and cooperation with related organizations ▲global package support to expand export channels in overseas markets ▲preferential support for working capital loans for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Notably, starting this year, the selection scope has been expanded by adding ‘Pre Promising Small and Strong Enterprises’?companies with growth potential and technological capabilities relative to sales?alongside the existing two categories of ‘Promising Small and Strong Enterprises’ and ‘Excellent Promising Small and Strong Enterprises.’ Through a more segmented support system, selective support projects will be implemented according to company size and growth stage.

Additionally, to link with future core industries that the city is focusing on, such as biohealth, secondary batteries, and hydrogen fuel cells, preferential additional points will be newly applied to companies in related fields during the selection evaluation. Based on specialized competitiveness enhancement, the city plans to induce gradual scale-up of these companies.

Furthermore, leveraging the external achievements of promising small and strong enterprises in overseas markets, such as winning the Innovation Award at CES 2023 in the U.S., Pohang City will expand package support projects to enhance global competitiveness, recover weakened investment sentiment, and actively support overseas market entry and channel expansion through company-specific export strategy establishment.

Moreover, indirect support such as preferential loans and secondary interest subsidies has been expanded and improved to alleviate financial difficulties and stabilize management for small and strong enterprises. To proactively respond to the rapidly changing business environment in the post-COVID-19 era, the ‘On-tact Marketing Support Project’ will be expanded to strengthen corporate brand value and marketing capabilities through promotional videos and mobile web platforms based on online platforms.

Last year, the certificate awarding ceremony for Pohang City's Promising Small and Medium Enterprises.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok stated, “While discovering small and strong enterprises with technological competitiveness and capabilities is important, the core is to create an environment where local companies can grow further through tailored nurturing and follow-up management.” He added, “We will provide comprehensive support to strengthen the internal and external competitiveness of small and strong enterprises based on expanded and reorganized various strategic support projects and excellent R&D cooperation.”

Since 2015, Pohang City has been discovering and nurturing about 10 ‘Pohang-type’ small and strong enterprises annually as part of the ‘Small and Strong Enterprise Ecosystem Development’ project. To date, a total of 92 promising small and strong enterprises have been selected, contributing to industrial structure diversification, job creation, and establishing themselves as a key pillar of regional economic growth.

Applications for support for promising small and strong enterprises can be submitted online through the Pohang Technopark website from April 17 to May 4. For more details, please refer to the Pohang City and Pohang Technopark websites or contact the Pohang Technopark Corporate Growth Support Team.

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