"Venture Industry's Goal This Year is Globalization"… Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Remove 'Barriers'

Seong Sang-yeop Chairman "Still Unable to Escape Domestic Market"
Oh Young-joo Minister "Actively Promoting Capacity Building Policies"

The venture industry has set its goal for this year as ‘global market entry through innovative growth.’ To support this, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working to eliminate ‘departmental barriers’ and expand collaboration.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (right) and Minister Cho Tae-yeol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are attending the '2024 Innovation Venture Industry New Year's Meeting' held on the 19th at EL Tower in Seocho-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups]

The Korea Venture Business Association held the ‘2024 New Year Meeting of the Innovative Venture Industry’ on the 19th at EL Tower in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Attendees included Seong Sang-yeop, chairman of the Korea Venture Business Association, Yoon Geon-su, chairman of the Korea Venture Capital Association, Yoon Mi-ok, chairwoman of the Korea Women Venture Association, Shin Jin-oh, chairman of the Korea Accelerator Association, and other venture industry officials. From the government, Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Minister Cho Tae-yeol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated.

First, the venture industry emphasized global market entry this year. The slogan of the event itself was ‘Hopeful Korea’s Innovative Ventures, Narsha to the Global Market!’ Chairman Seong Sang-yeop stated, “In 2024, we must focus no longer on crisis but on innovative growth, discovering innovative ideas and challenging innovation and global market entry through technology development,” adding, “Venture companies are still unable to break away from the domestic market, which accounts for only about 1% of the global gross domestic product (GDP). Globalization is an essential task to achieve the growth of venture companies.”

Chairman Seong continued, “Venture companies stand at a critical turning point related to survival, and major countries are waging battles to secure core technologies including artificial intelligence (AI),” and added, “To expand the venture investment market, we will further create an environment for the inflow of global capital into Korea and strive to establish institutional foundations to help venture companies secure talent.”

To support such global expansion of the venture industry, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups promised to increase support. Minister Oh Young-joo said, “Through meticulous support for advanced industries, we are preparing extensively to ensure that venture companies armed with creativity and innovation can actively enter the global market this year,” and explained, “First, we will actively promote policies to strengthen the global market entry capabilities of venture companies.”

Minister Oh also stated, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups already announced the Startup Korea measures last year, and this year we intend to faithfully implement strategies centered on these measures to realize Korea as a global startup and venture hub nation,” adding, “Venture companies that succeed in diversifying exports will be given preferential treatment through incentives in many support projects of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.”

Seong Sang-yeop, Chairman of the Korea Venture Business Association, is delivering a greeting at the '2024 New Year's Meeting of the Innovative Venture Industry' held on the 19th at EL Tower in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Korea Venture Business Association

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will also strengthen cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Minister Cho Tae-yeol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose to visit the venture industry as his first public engagement after taking office. Minister Cho emphasized, “To support many SMEs and venture companies struggling to obtain overseas local market information, overseas diplomatic missions around the world will take the lead in collecting market information and sharing it with you,” and added, “Among the heads of overseas diplomatic missions who return to Korea annually to attend the Overseas Diplomatic Missions Meeting, we plan to arrange one-on-one consultations with those stationed in markets of interest to SMEs and venture entrepreneurs.”

Minister Cho said, “Going forward, the two ministries will boldly break down barriers and work together to promote more collaborative projects that allow venture startups to fully demonstrate their advanced science and technology capabilities in the global market.”

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