79% of SMEs and Small Business Owners "No Expectation for Legislation from the 22nd National Assembly"

Survey Results on "Hopes for the 22nd National Assembly"
Disappointment over Delays in Handling Key Issues like the Serious Accident Punishment Act

One in four CEOs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners expressed low expectations for the legislative activities related to SMEs and small businesses by the 22nd National Assembly.

According to the Korea Federation of SMEs on the 21st, a survey titled "Hopes for the 22nd National Assembly" was conducted from the 15th to the 19th of last month targeting 600 CEOs of SMEs and small business owners. The results showed that 27.3% responded that their expectations for the next National Assembly’s legislative efforts related to SMEs and small businesses were "low." Those who answered "high" accounted for 21.0%, while 51.7% responded "so-so."

The top legislative priority for the 22nd National Assembly was identified as "strengthening employment and worker support for SMEs" (57.7%). This was followed by "flexibilization of working hours" (41.3%), "promotion of local SMEs" (24.3%), and "supplementing legislation on the Serious Accidents Punishment Act" (23.2%).

Regarding the desirable image of a 22nd National Assembly member, "honest and clean member" (21.0%) ranked first. This was followed by "members who actively communicate with SMEs and small business owners" (20.0%), "members who maintain their convictions even if different from party lines" (20.0%), and "members who diligently perform legislative activities" (19.2%).

Meanwhile, the greatest achievements of the 21st National Assembly were identified as "support for overcoming the COVID-19 crisis" (32.8%), "securing budgets for consumption promotion such as local currency" (20.3%), and "alleviating management burdens for small business owners through industrial accident insurance and energy cost support" (11.3%).

However, regarding the evaluation of the 21st National Assembly, 48.8% responded that it "did poorly," about half, while only 7.2% said it "did well."

Choo Moon-gap, Head of the Economic Policy Division at the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, "The disappointment seems to reflect the failure of bipartisan agreement on the postponement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and other pending SME issues that were not promptly addressed by the National Assembly." He emphasized, "In the next National Assembly, we hope that active bipartisan agreement and swift handling of SME and small business issues such as strengthening employment support and flexibilization of working hours will raise expectations for legislative activities."

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