As a bill to remove the term-limit restriction on the chair of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises was introduced in the National Assembly, attention is on whether the path will open for current KBIZ Chair Kim Ki-moon to seek the chairmanship once again. With Kim's term set to end in Feb. next year, some say he could seek a "third consecutive term" depending on whether the bill passes.
According to the National Assembly's bill information system on the 8th, Rep. Jeong Jin-uk of the Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea recently led the introduction of a "partial amendment to the Small and Medium Enterprise Cooperatives Act" that removes the provision limiting the number of consecutive terms for the KBIZ chair. A total of 10 lawmakers participated in the amendment, including nine from the Democratic Party of Korea and Rep. Park Sung-min of the People Power Party.
Current law sets the KBIZ chair's term at four years and allows only one consecutive term. The amendment deletes this consecutive-term limit and, instead, limits the term of a chair elected in a by-election to the remainder of the predecessor's term. It also includes a change to leave the consecutive-term rule for chairs of small and medium enterprise cooperatives to their articles of association. The law will take effect six months after promulgation.
If the amendment passes the National Assembly in the second half of this year, some say Chair Kim Ki-moon, whose term ends in Feb. next year, could run for the chairmanship again. The KBIZ chair leads the organization representing small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide, a post so symbolic and influential in the industry that it is called the "SME president."
Kim, the founder of J.ESTINA (formerly Romanson), served as the 23rd and 24th KBIZ chair from 2007 to 2015 and has held the 26th and 27th chairmanships since 2019. Attention is on Kim's next steps depending on whether the law is amended and the pace of deliberations in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, some argue that if Kim actually runs in the KBIZ chair election, his influence may not match that of the past compared with new figures calling for a generational shift and innovation in the SME community, and that, depending on the race, the possibility of defeat cannot be ruled out.