The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 5th that KB Financial Group grants 10 billion won to the large-small business win-win cooperation fund.
These contributions will be used for support programs for ▲ artificial intelligence transformation (AX) ▲ green transformation (GX) ▲ safety transformation (SX) and for creating a win-win cooperation mother fund. KB Financial will work to lay the foundation for sustainable growth of small and medium-sized corporations and small merchants.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and KB Financial plan to support capacity building in digital, eco-friendly, and safety fields and to help spread ESG management and create regional social value.
This grants expands the scope of the existing win-win cooperation fund, which supports partner corporations, to include small and medium-sized corporations and small merchants that are not partner companies. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and the Foundation of Large & Small Business, Agriculture and Fisheries Cooperation plan to promote related projects with KB Financial.
The AX program focuses on supporting the digital transformation of small and medium-sized corporations and small merchants. It will support the introduction of AI-based solutions for regional manufacturing corporations and provide smart ordering systems and customer analytics marketing tools to small merchants to help improve competitiveness.
The GX program provides climate finance education and consulting for small and medium-sized corporations within supply chains. It aims to broaden the base for using green finance by helping facilities and overall management meet the Korean green taxonomy.
The SX program targets safety technology corporations and small business sites. It will provide market expansion consulting to corporations with safety technologies, and offer, free of charge, AI CCTV and sensor-based safety management systems and industrial safety consulting to business sites with insufficient safety management capacity.
The win-win cooperation mother fund to be created alongside will make impact investments in corporations linked to regional social ventures. KB Financial will commit 3 billion won to the first mother fund, and the sub-funds plan to identify and invest in corporations that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "This is a more important time than ever for win-win growth and cooperation among large corporations, small and medium-sized corporations, and the financial sector," adding, "We expect KB Financial's latest grants to serve as a strong primer for spreading a culture of win-win cooperation in the financial sector."