The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a briefing on the 12th for public institutions and others to review the status of major policies centered on microbusinesses, ventures, and research and development (R&D). It presented "restoring the growth ladder" as its policy stance.
The briefing was attended by 15 public and related institutions, including the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME), and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), as well as five private groups, including the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Venture Business Association, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME), and the Korea Startup Forum. Participants shared each institution's key tasks and implementation plans and exchanged views on policy direction.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), in the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) briefing, reviewed plans to secure country- and market-specific data to select promising online export items such as K-beauty, fashion, and food. It called for further refining specialized operating strategies for the tentatively named "Regional Growth and Innovation Center," promoted to strengthen regional industrial competitiveness, and raised the need to streamline overlapping elements in youth startup and nurturing policies to enhance differentiation.
It instructed the Small Enterprise and Market Service to verify, together with the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME), whether the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) competency training program reflects microbusinesses' level of digital readiness. It also reviewed the status of building big data on microbusinesses that can be used immediately for policy making and on-site support, as well as preparations for implementing management stability vouchers.
It asked the Korea Federation of Credit Guarantee Foudations (KOREG) to consider introducing a new diagnosis and evaluation system to support microbusinesses with growth potential. It called for measures to adjust debt and support restarts for microbusinesses struggling to repay, and also demanded institutional management improvements to enhance the stability of the guarantee system.
It requested the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) to set indicators that can clearly manage outcomes related to policies supporting mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to strengthen the basis for investment recovery. Plans to make damage compensation more realistic to protect small and medium-sized enterprises harmed by technology theft were also included in the review.
It urged the Korea Venture Investment Corporation to improve risk-sharing incentives in the parent fund to expand participation of pension funds and retirement pension assets in venture investment. It also called for measures to link strategic parent funds with the Public Growth Fund and to root out unfair venture investment contracts.
It asked the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) to strategically use this year's R&D budget of 2.2 trillion won and to improve the existing R&D delivery and evaluation system. Regarding the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), it discussed ways to advance a national startup data utilization strategy by linking the consultation data accumulated at 17 startup one-stop support centers nationwide with policies and systems.
It asked the Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI) to analyze the impact of population decline and widening regional gaps on small and medium-sized corporations and to suggest policy responses. To support a shift to growth-focused policies, it also requested research to build a system that can evaluate corporations' growth potential objectively and quantitatively.
Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "To make this year the first year of a great leap forward for the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and public and related institutions must join forces to concentrate policy capabilities on 'restoring the growth ladder for small, venture, and microbusinesses.'"
To that end, the Minister presented three key tasks: ▲ shifting to growth-promotion-centered policies ▲ data-based service innovation ▲ bold support for regional corporations.