Ministry of SMEs and Startups Holds Briefing Session on Special Support Area Program for Small and Medium Enterprises

On the 19th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it held a briefing session on support programs for companies located in the special support area for SMEs in Gwangsan-gu at Gwangju Technopark.

This briefing session was organized to support SMEs in four industrial complexes located in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, which are facing a crisis due to the court receivership of Daewoo Winia Group. It is a follow-up measure to the designation of the "Special Support Area for SMEs" by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 21st of last month.

The briefing session was planned to provide information on the contents of various support programs, eligibility requirements, and application procedures tailored to the perspective of the demand-side companies. The purpose is to increase the utilization rate of the programs and help overcome management crises. Experts in each support area explained special support area exclusive projects (Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development), government funding support projects, non-R&D support projects (Small and Medium Business Corporation), R&D support projects (TIPA), crisis support center projects (Gwangju Technopark), national tax reduction system (Gwangju Regional Tax Office), local tax support system (Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall), and employment support projects (Gwangju Regional Employment and Labor Office).

Following the corporate rehabilitation procedure application by five Daewoo Winia Group companies in October, many partner companies in Gwangju suffered damages. Among them, the damaged companies were concentrated in four industrial complexes designated as special support areas for SMEs. Accordingly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups shortened the usual three-month designation process for special support areas to one month to prevent the expansion of damage to upstream and downstream related companies and nearby densely populated areas due to the collapse of the home appliance industry ecosystem, a representative local industry, as well as to prevent severe local economic recession.

Companies located in the areas designated as special support areas for SMEs receive benefits such as R&D and commercialization support, market access support, and other exclusive projects for special support areas, as well as preferential financial support including emergency management stabilization funds and guarantees from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and benefits such as restricted competitive bidding and negotiated contracts for production goods. Kim Woo-jung, Director of Regional Enterprise Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "Regarding the Daewoo Winia incident, we have been assessing damages with local governments and related ministries and preparing various support measures. We will continue to supply policy funds reflecting the demands of the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions in 2024 to minimize damages."

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