A "policy Alim Talk" service that screens and directly delivers government support program information to small business owners is proving effective in expanding participation. By providing tailored guidance to small business owners who find it hard to search policy information one by one while making a living, applications for some programs increased by up to 20 times.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 7th that it confirmed an increase in support program applications through the small business policy Alim Talk service.
Until now, small business policies were guided mainly through public notices, so many eligible participants missed related information. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) is operating a tailored policy guidance service for 810,000 of 1.52 million small business owners in its management data who agreed to receive KakaoTalk or text messages, which had been used for program management purposes.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said it improved policy accessibility by selecting eligible recipients for each program using information such as industry, age, gender, and region, and then sending Alim Talk messages.
From March to May this year, the scope of guidance was expanded to include not only MSS programs but also programs from other central ministries and local governments, and a pilot operation was conducted.
In fact, in March, after sending Alim Talk messages to 213,000 women small business owners in their 20s to 40s for the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL)'s childbirth benefit support program, the number of applications increased by more than 1.3 times compared with before. Among them, applications by one-person businesses, which face relatively greater constraints in information search, increased by about 1.7 times.
The effect was even more pronounced in local government programs. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), on behalf of local governments that lack separate small business owner databases, selected recipients based on location, industry, age, and other criteria and provided a total of 67,000 tailored guidance messages.
An analysis of five local government programs, including Ulsan City's packaging material purchase cost support program, found that after sending Alim Talk messages, the number of applications increased from four times to more than 20 times compared with before. Recipients of Alim Talk accounted for 31.1% of all applicants.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to continue expanding the policy alert service in the second half of the year. While additionally identifying programs from central ministries and local governments, it will further refine the selection criteria for recipients by program to enhance the effectiveness of guidance.
Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "It has been confirmed that policy Alim Talk is an effective means of promoting small business support programs," adding, "Based on the small business data accumulated so far, we will expand the provision of tailored information that reflects characteristics by target and situation."