Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Support Exports of 2,400 Small and Medium Enterprises

'Export Voucher Support Project'
'Global Strong Small and Medium Enterprises 1000+ Project'
Recruiting Participating Companies... Over 2,400 Selected

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups supports the global expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

On the 22nd, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it is recruiting companies to participate in the ▲Export Voucher ▲Global Strong SMEs 1000+ Project to support SMEs' entry into the global market.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The 'Export Voucher Project' is an overseas expansion support program that allows companies to select and use desired services and service providers from a menu of 14 overseas marketing services, including design development, promotion, buyer discovery, overseas certification, and international transportation, within the contract period through vouchers composed of government subsidies and company contributions.

Based on the previous year's export performance, companies are classified into stages: ▲Domestic (companies with no export performance or less than $1,000 in the previous year) ▲Beginner (export amount between $1,000 and less than $100,000) ▲Promising (export amount between $100,000 and less than $1 million) ▲Growth (export amount between $1 million and less than $5 million) ▲Strong (export amount of $5 million or more). Support ranges from 30 million KRW to a maximum of 100 million KRW depending on export scale, and about 2,400 companies will be selected in the first recruitment.

This year, the evaluation weight for the export country diversification indicator will be increased from the existing 20% to 30%. In addition, companies selected for the Export Voucher can receive logistics cost support of up to 20 million KRW for expenses incurred during the export process, such as international multimodal transportation fees.

The 'Global Strong SMEs 1000+ Project' is a system that integrates the previously separate designation systems for Global Strong SMEs, Export Promising SMEs, and Export Dream SMEs, which had different selection procedures, schedules, and criteria last year. It selects SMEs with export amounts of $100,000 or more in the previous year that have high growth potential and provides preferential treatment for various financial supports such as overseas expansion support projects and policy funds from about 20 export support organizations.

Companies wishing to participate in the Export Voucher and Global Strong SMEs 1000+ Project can apply through the Export Voucher website from the 23rd to February 13th. Companies wishing to participate only in the Global Strong SMEs 1000+ Project, which is an export company designation system, can apply through the KOSME website.

Choi Won-young, Director of Global Growth Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “We will actively support exporting SMEs through the Export Voucher and Global Strong SMEs 1000+ Project to ensure that the recovery trend of SME exports continues.”

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