Fair Trade Commission Chairman: "Ensuring Fairness in Business Relationships Is Key to SME Growth"

Visiting the Field of Small and Medium Enterprises as His First Official Activity

Joo Byunggi, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, met with small and medium-sized business owners as his first official activity after taking office, emphasizing that "we must pave the way for small and venture businesses to grow into innovative large enterprises by ensuring fairness in business relationships."

The Fair Trade Commission reported that Chairman Joo made these remarks on the morning of September 18 at the "On-site Communication Meeting with Small and Medium Business Owners" held at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Seoul. The meeting was attended by Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs; Yoon Haksoo, Chairman of the Korea Specialty Contractors Association; Park Changsook, Chairwoman of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association; Jeong Gwangcheon, Chairman of the INNOBIZ Association; and other representatives of industry-specific cooperatives.

Chairman Joo pointed out, "Our economy is currently limited in allowing individual economic players to exercise their free and creative capabilities due to the imbalance in bargaining power and polarization between large corporations with superior positions and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are economically vulnerable."

He went on to say, "The role of the Fair Trade Commission is to correct this imbalance, create a healthy business ecosystem, and lay the foundation for economic growth and a new leap forward. By ensuring fairness in business relationships, we must open the way for innovative small and venture businesses and small merchants to grow into 100-year-old stores, century-old companies, solid mid-sized enterprises, and innovative large corporations."

Chairman Joo pledged to eradicate the misappropriation of innovative SME technologies to build a mutually beneficial market system. He also announced plans to improve the payment guarantee system and the supply price indexation system to address payment issues for subcontractors. In the franchise sector, he intends to strengthen the bargaining power of franchisee organizations and devise measures to improve the stability of business start-ups and closures.

He also promised to pursue alternatives such as shortening payment deadlines so that small suppliers and tenants can receive payments more quickly from large-scale retailers, thereby promoting mutual growth between large retailers and small and medium-sized suppliers and tenants.

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, "The scope of the supply price indexation system should be expanded to protect root enterprises and others," and requested that the Fair Trade Commission actively monitor and address attempts to evade the system, such as inducing non-indexed agreements.

The participating small and medium-sized business owners also proposed the introduction of a Korean-style discovery system to prevent technology misappropriation, support for victimized SMEs using unfair trade penalties, and granting the right to request consultations to SME cooperatives.

Chairman Joo said, "We will closely review the issues discussed today and actively reflect them in the Fair Trade Commission's future policy initiatives."

Chairman Joo, who took office on September 16, plans to continue a series of "relay on-site meetings," starting with this event, by directly visiting small and medium-sized businesses and small merchants in the franchise, retail, and subcontracting sectors to listen to their voices.

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