Ombudsman for Small and Medium Enterprises Choi Seung-jae said on the 17th that he held an "SOS Talk SME roundtable" at Seongnam Center M Knowledge Industry Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, together with the eastern Gyeonggi branch of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), with small and medium-sized venture businesspeople from eastern Gyeonggi participating.
SOS Talk is a joint roundtable that the SME ombudsman and KOSME have co-hosted since 2015 to resolve regulatory difficulties faced by small and medium-sized ventures.
Before the roundtable, Ombudsman Choi visited Seongheung TS, a manufacturer specializing in transparent displays located in the Seongnam industrial complex, to hear about difficulties in expanding sales channels, including entering the public procurement market.
The subsequent roundtable brought together about 20 people, including Ombudsman Choi Seung-jae, representatives of small and medium-sized ventures in eastern Gyeonggi, Cho Hee-su, head of the Gyeonggi Regional Office of SMEs and Startups, Ban Jeong-sik, director of regional innovation at KOSME, and Park Su-seok, head of KOSME's eastern Gyeonggi branch, to discuss ways to improve unreasonable on-site regulations for small businesses.
First, Company A, which produces parts for semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, requested, "Please expand the designated period for tariff exemptions applied when importing materials and supplies related to semiconductor manufacturing equipment from the current three years to at least five years." It said that considering the semiconductor equipment industry requires long-term research and development and large-scale investment, a three-year tariff exemption period is relatively short.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, the competent ministry, answered, "We have submitted to the National Assembly a revision to the Customs Act to extend the current designated period to 10 years, and it will be discussed in the National Assembly going forward."
There was also a request to improve the format of export performance certificates for corporations that manufacture convenience foods such as meal kits and export K-food overseas.
When participating in government agency support programs, the "by country" print format is used among the export performance certificate forms issued by the Korea International Trade Association, but the current format does not provide country-by-country export performance on a single copy when there are multiple export destinations, resulting in the difficulty of having to print a separate copy for each country.
The Korea International Trade Association answered, "Going forward, we plan to develop the system so that a single copy can contain export performance by each country and to provide export-import performance certificate services in various formats, such as by item and by country."
In addition, participants proposed a range of on-site regulatory issues and difficulties, including: ▲ attracting talent domestically by easing employment visa requirements for foreign student graduates ▲ improving regulations for reissuing certification for technology-innovation and management-innovation type SMEs ▲ improving standards on prohibited ingredients and restricted substances for air fresheners.
Ombudsman Choi Seung-jae said, "Regardless of the severity of the matter, we will continue to expand regional, on-site communication channels to improve unreasonable regulations on the ground and resolve difficulties," adding, "We will continuously monitor and provide follow-up support so that the tasks discussed at this roundtable can be carried out as regulatory improvements that can be felt in the field."
Ban Jeong-sik, director of regional innovation at KOSME, said, "KOSME will work closely with the ombudsman at the front lines of small and medium-sized ventures to ensure that on-site difficulties are reflected in policy."