Jungjinkong Supports 1,534 Companies with This Year's 'Innovation Voucher'

Recruitment of 1st Demand Companies for 2024 until December 8

The Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kang Seok-jin, hereinafter referred to as SBC) announced on the 27th that it has promoted the provision of 2,559 customized vouchers to a total of 1,534 small manufacturing companies through the '2023 Small Business Innovation Voucher' project, worth a total of 55.8 billion KRW.

SBC's Small Business Innovation Voucher project (hereinafter referred to as Innovation Voucher) was newly launched in 2020 with the goal of "strengthening the competitiveness of regional manufacturing small businesses" and has now entered its fourth year.

Applicants are small enterprises in manufacturing with an average annual sales of 12 billion KRW or less over three years, selected through document and on-site evaluations. Selected demand companies can freely choose and use services provided by performing organizations from a voucher menu worth up to 50 million KRW per company, across three fields?▲consulting ▲technical support ▲marketing?with a total of 12 programs.

Small and Medium Business Corporation

This year, a total of 1,534 companies were selected for the Innovation Voucher, of which 80.2% are micro-enterprises with sales under 5 billion KRW. In particular, 1,311 regional traditional manufacturing small companies in high-carbon and root industries were intensively supported. Additionally, to strengthen small businesses’ response capabilities to changes in the business environment, new vouchers were established for ESG management innovation, green technology innovation, and regional autonomous vouchers.

The Innovation Voucher has seen a continuous increase in application demand, with 11,017 companies applying this year, a 1.5-fold increase compared to the previous year. To accommodate this, in 2024, SBC plans to adjust the subsidy rate to expand beneficiary companies and extend the support targets of the Carbon Neutral Management Innovation Voucher and the Regional Autonomous Voucher (2nd phase) to include 'medium-sized enterprises.'

Furthermore, in response to difficulties faced by small businesses due to the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, a new 'Serious Accident Prevention Voucher' will be introduced, providing package support from consulting to replacement of hazardous equipment parts and system establishment.

Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of SBC, stated, "Through the Innovation Voucher project, SBC is actively supporting the innovative growth of manufacturing small businesses," adding, "We will continue to expand support by providing customized services in response to internal and external management changes such as serious accident prevention and carbon neutrality."

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