The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Startups will invest 619.6 billion won next year to expand exports and promote overseas advancements for small and medium enterprises (SME).
On the 23rd, the Ministry of SMEs announced the integration of 12 projects for the '2025 small and medium enterprises export support program' and presented policy directions.
The business plan for next year allocates 619.6 billion won, a 45% increase from the current year's budget of 427.2 billion won, for nine support projects for small and medium enterprises (including small business owners) and three specialized support projects for small business owners.
The Ministry of SMEs explained that it has significantly expanded the export budget for small and medium enterprises (SME) to respond to uncertainties in the external environment. The support scale for new market entry support funds that provide long-term, low-interest export funding and export vouchers, which allow export companies to immediately utilize various services such as marketing, design, and certification, has been greatly increased.
A new export voucher for tech services has been established with a budget of 14 billion won, expanding the previously product-centered export support system to include areas such as cloud services and data centers.
The Ministry of SMEs is planning to strengthen support for diversification of export countries and overseas advancements in response to the launch of the second Trump administration. To support new market development, an incentive program will continue to operate to raise export voucher limits for successful businesses in diversifying export countries and expand applicable volumes.
The Global Business Centers (GBC), which serve as bases for small and medium enterprises (SME) advancing overseas, plans to open one additional location next year, bringing the total to 21 sites across 14 countries, including the newly opened location in Jakarta, Indonesia, this month.
In response to the recent increase in overseas export regulations due to strengthened protectionism, efforts will be intensified. The 'fast track' certifications for overseas standard certification support projects, which shorten support procedures through simplified screening, will add additional target certifications, and the limit on the number of certification support applications per corporation will be expanded for small certifications such as cosmetics.
Moreover, the ministry will strengthen collaboration support systems between the public sector and private sector and actively foster small business owners as export corporations. The export volume of small business owners increased by 16% from $12.8 billion in 2016 to $14.8 billion in 2022.
For small business owners lacking export experience, online export support will be provided, and support for entry into global shopping malls will be offered to small business owners with export capabilities, thus providing opportunities for direct online exports.
Choi Won-young, director of global growth policies at the Ministry of SMEs, noted, "We will actively promote support for diversification of export countries and overseas advancements, tech services exports, and responses to overseas export regulations while closely monitoring onsite conditions."