Ministry of SMEs and Startups Announces "30 Billion KRW Investment to Establish 3,000 Smart Factories by 2027"

Private-Led Win-Win Smart Factory

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the private sector have joined hands to establish 3,000 smart factories by 2027.

On the 26th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a 'Large and Small Business Win-Win Smart Factory' agreement ceremony at the Korea Federation of SMEs.

The ceremony was attended by a total of about 100 stakeholders, including 19 large corporations and public institutions participating in the win-win smart factory dissemination project, 20 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have introduced win-win smart factories, and 6 cooperating organizations.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The 'Large and Small Business Win-Win Smart Factory Dissemination Project' is a project started in 2018 to spread a culture of win-win cooperation between large corporations and SMEs. It is being promoted based on the principle that when large corporations and SMEs collaborate to build smart factories, the government provides support.

As the perception that the management performance of SMEs that have introduced smart factories leads to the performance of large corporations through supply chain efficiency spreads, the participation of large corporations is steadily increasing.

Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Company, who attended the agreement ceremony, presented excellent cases of smart factories supported by their companies; Taelim shared cases of supply chain construction based on SCM (a process that effectively manages the entire process from raw material procurement to the final product reaching the seller) with partner companies; and the SME Dong-A Plating presented achievements such as productivity improvement through the introduction of win-win smart factories.

Representatives from large corporations emphasized the importance of win-win cooperation, stating, “Support for smart factories for SMEs may feel like a cost at first, but in reality, it is also an investment that enhances the competitiveness of the participating large corporations.”

The representatives of large corporations, public enterprises, and SMEs who attended the agreement ceremony drafted a vision declaration for win-win cooperation, stating, “Preparing for a better future through digital manufacturing innovation. Promising a future together through large and small business win-win cooperation,” and pledged to promote cooperation between large and small businesses.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, “Since my inauguration, I have emphasized an active collaborative work method that produces concrete results, and the large and small business win-win smart factory construction project is a representative model of public-private collaboration that creates results,” adding, “The current government will invest 300 billion won through public-private cooperation to build 3,000 SMEs into large and small business win-win smart factories, enabling Korea’s manufacturing competitiveness to leap forward.”

He continued, “Domestic global large corporations need to establish long-term win-win supply chain platforms by sector and industry based on win-win smart factories to respond to stable supply chain management and carbon neutrality,” and added, “We ask for much cooperation from large corporations for the win-win smart factory support project, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will support and actively encourage win-win cooperation between large and small businesses.”

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