Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) said on the 4th that it has finalized this year's Small and Medium Venture Business Startup and Promotion Fund at 11.5129 trillion won and will support productivity innovation and growth for small and medium-sized corporations and venture corporations.
The fund will be operated on three pillars: productive policy finance to accelerate corporations' growth; support for global expansion through advanced export assistance; and building a foundation for future growth based on regions, artificial intelligence (AI), and talent.
Policy funds total 4.4313 trillion won. Support will be divided into 4.0643 trillion won in direct loan and 367 billion won in interest subsidies. In particular, 1.6058 trillion won for innovation startup commercialization funds, 316.4 billion won for new market entry support funds, and 1.0811 trillion won for new growth foundation funds will be concentrated on innovative growth, facility investment, manufacturing digitalization, and overseas expansion.
Financial support combining investment elements will also be expanded. Through investment-conditional loan, growth-sharing loans, and scale-up finance, it will induce inflows of private capital, and for promising medium-sized corporations, it will supply large-scale funds using a securitization guarantee (P-CBO) method to help them grow into mid-sized corporations.
The export support budget was also increased. The export voucher budget will be expanded to 150.2 billion won, and the system was revamped to allow constant use of tariff response services. Support for joint online export logistics will be increased to 17.3 billion won, and the construction of logistics centers dedicated to small and medium-sized corporations will also be promoted.
It will also focus on strengthening regional and talent bases. The region-led AI great transformation project will be expanded to 49 billion won, and the Jump-up program that supports small and medium-sized corporations to grow into mid-sized corporations will increase to 59.5 billion won. KOSME will run AI-specialized training at its training center and newly establish 10 AI-specialized contract departments as industry-academia cooperation project departments.
Kang Seok-jin, chair of Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), said, "We focused on comprehensively supporting the entire process of corporations' growth beyond funding support," adding, "We will provide organization-wide support by organically linking policy, finance, and on-site support."