Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of Jungjin-gong, "Full Effort to Restore Dynamism of Small and Medium Venture Enterprises"

January 1 New Year Press Conference Held
Announcement of '2024 Four Major Support Policy Directions'

Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC), identified "restoring the dynamism of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and ventures" as the core policy support direction for this year. This decision comes from the judgment that, amid the ongoing global economic slowdown, it is crucial to restore the dynamism and innovative growth of SMEs and ventures, which are the main drivers of the national economy. To this end, SBC plans to actively promote financial support, revitalization of regional economies, entry into new global markets, and customized talent development this year.

At a New Year press briefing held on the 1st at the Seoul Youth Startup Academy in Mok-dong, Seoul, Chairman Kang said, "We will secure global competitiveness through proactive structural improvements of SMEs and ventures and create a vibrant industrial environment through regional innovation." Chairman Kang explained that since his inauguration on September 1 last year, he has visited SME sites facing management crises due to global supply chain disruptions, listened to companies' opinions, and identified key tasks to alleviate the difficulties and burdens felt on the ground.

Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, is speaking at the New Year's press conference held on the 1st at the Seoul Youth Startup Academy.

First, while support focused on overcoming survival crises during the complex crises in the past, this year the focus will be on strengthening financial support to enhance corporate vitality and restore dynamism. To this end, investment in facilities in high-growth innovative sectors will be strengthened, and support for export companies will be expanded. Preferential support for companies that achieve results such as employment and sales growth will also be enhanced. Investment conditional loans to activate private follow-up investment will be newly introduced. Additionally, a safety net for new business transformation and re-challenge will be established, and support for transitioning to win-win joint projects between large and small-medium enterprises will be expanded.

In particular, to ensure stable growth of regional industries amid the risk of regional extinction, SBC will focus on supporting regional innovative SMEs and ventures to invigorate regional economies. A representative example is the new launch of a 100 billion KRW-scale win-win growth network loan to ease the financial burden of local order-receiving companies. Related policies also include restructuring accounts receivable factoring operations, promoting investment activation of SMEs located outside the metropolitan area, launching global innovation special zones, strengthening links with regional industry growth projects, and new businesses.

Support will also be strengthened for policies to enhance the ability of export SMEs to enter new global markets. First, consulting and verification support for carbon emissions will be newly launched in response to the European Union (EU)'s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which could act as a new global trade barrier. Plans to drive export growth include expanding export vouchers for domestic companies to become export companies, expanding export financing, operating SME-exclusive shipping space in collaboration with the national shipping company (HMM), and strengthening the nurturing function of the Global Startup Academy.

Customized talent will also be cultivated through the establishment of a differentiated workforce support system. A job cooperation model for vulnerable groups in the labor market will be established, and support for the inflow and training of foreign workers will be provided in collaboration with local governments and regional universities. Efforts will be made to train 16,000 smart manufacturing specialists and nurture regionally specialized customized talent.

Chairman Kang Seok-jin said, “We will continue to connect and support policy services tailored to field needs through communication with SMEs and ventures by region and industry, strengthen executive accountability and policy responsiveness, and professionally and efficiently promote policy support projects such as regional innovation. We will continuously expand customer services based on the big data of about 3 million companies owned by SBC and policy execution know-how, and strengthen cooperation with the private sector and related organizations to maximize support synergy with all our efforts.”

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