Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises said on the 20th that it is recruiting cooperatives to participate in the "innovation-type joint project support program" for small and medium enterprise cooperatives through Feb. 20 to promote collaboration among small and medium-sized enterprises and activate joint projects by cooperatives.
Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises will support direct project costs needed for joint projects so that industry-specific small and medium enterprise cooperatives can build collaboration models such as AX (AI transformation) and DX (digital transformation), responses to environmental regulations, joint marketing, and logistics innovation through this program.
Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises plans to inject a total budget of 1.7 billion won, an increase of 400 million won from last year, to support the activation of innovation-type joint projects by cooperatives.
Eligible applicants are small and medium enterprise cooperatives established under the Small and Medium Enterprise Cooperatives Act, and up to 80% of project costs per cooperative will be supported, with a maximum of 100 million won. Through the newly established AX and DX fields this year, the program will newly support digital transformation of industry-specific cooperatives, including development and advancement of cooperatives' digital platforms and incorporation of AI technology use.
Hyeon Jun, head of the collaboration projects office at Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, said, "Support in the AX and DX fields is an important program that helps overcome the digital limits of individual small and medium-sized enterprises and enables industry-specific cooperatives to build AI and digital platforms to create growth engines for small and medium-sized enterprises," adding, "Going forward, beyond joint projects centered on existing joint purchasing and sales, we expect cooperatives to serve as digital innovation platforms by industry."