After Lee Byeong-gweon, the Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, was appointed the inaugural vice minister exclusively in charge of micro business owners, he visited the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) for his first on-site schedule and said on the 17th that he would "ease the management burden on micro business owners."
The Vice Minister visited the federation to hear opinions on recent changes in the business environment of the micro business sector and on necessary support policies. They discussed in breadth a policy direction that can be felt on the ground.
Song Chi-young, president of the federation, said, "We expect the vice minister exclusively in charge of micro business owners, newly established at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) in response to the wishes of micro business owners, to faithfully reflect voices from the field in policy," and noted, "We will actively support future support policies for micro business owners and the government's on-site moves."
The Vice Minister said, "The 7.9 million micro business owners are a solid foundation of the people's economy and local communities," and added, "As the inaugural vice minister exclusively in charge of micro business owners, based on constant communication with the industry, we will steadily push forward practical policies to ease the management burden on micro business owners and strengthen their growth base without setbacks."
The Vice Minister was born in Gwangju in 1968 and is regarded as a career bureaucrat who has handled small and medium-sized enterprise policy for more than 20 years. Entering public service in 1995 by passing the 39th Higher Civil Service Examination, Lee worked at the Ministry of Planning and Budget and elsewhere, and since 2005 has been in charge of SME-related affairs at the Small and Medium Business Administration and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.