The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Ministry of Economy and Finance held the "strategic economy and SME AI transition seminar" on the 1st at KBIZ in Yeouido, Seoul.
The seminar was prepared to explore response strategies for small and midsize enterprises in the strategic industries of AI agent commerce and AI/Robotics, which are part of the Strategic Economy Advisory Group, a private advisory body established by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
In the first lecture, Park Young-sun, Chairperson of the Strategic Economy Advisory Group at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, stressed that AI should be approached as a national-level strategy encompassing the economy, science and technology, and security, as well as industrial competitiveness. Park said, "In the era of AI transformation, economic, industrial, science and technology, and security policies should be integrated and run as a strategic economy," adding, "Small and midsize enterprises must participate in preparations for a won-based stablecoin, which is at the core of that process, as well as in the data-based K-ontology project and the activation of AI factories."
In particular, Park emphasized that as AI competition is rapidly intensifying among major countries such as the United States, China, and Japan, Korea must quickly establish a national-level AI utilization framework. Park stressed, "Through a strategic economy AI assistant and a national procurement AI agent, the government and industry should advance decision-making on the ground and move toward becoming a country that designs the AI ecosystem."
In AI agent commerce, a proposal was made that SMEs should respond to market changes through cross-industry cooperation rather than individually. Kim Yong-jin, professor of business administration at Sogang University (head of the AI agent commerce subcommittee of the Strategic Economy Advisory Group), said, "To respond to the expansion of the AI agent commerce market, let's build a cooperative regulatory sandbox model in which SMEs by industry unite, and prepare an infrastructure-centered policy package to support it."
In physical AI, securing data from manufacturing sites was presented as the top task. Kim Jun-ha, dean of the GIST Graduate School of AI Policy and Strategy (head of the AI/Robotics subcommittee of the Strategic Economy Advisory Group), said, "Data collection at manufacturing SME sites for physical AI comes first," adding, "Policy support is needed to standardize and process the data so it can be turned into an asset by industry."
Kim Ki-moon, KBIZ chairman, said in a welcome address, "As the government is working to transition to AI to leap into the world's top three AI powers, SMEs should actively join in and create new growth opportunities."
Kim also said, "The government and the private sector should join forces to design and support policies in stages that match SMEs' levels of AI transition, from the basic to the advanced stage," adding, "Just as the federation has supported the construction of win-win smart factories between large and small companies with Samsung and POSCO over the past nine years, we should realize 'growth for all' by connecting the AI competitiveness of large companies to the broader industry so SMEs can grow together."
Heo Jang, second vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said, "For SMEs to adapt and innovate in AI agents and physical AI, we need to build an inclusive and vibrant ecosystem where AI is used on industrial sites," adding, "We will support SMEs in innovating productivity using AI by providing computing infrastructure such as GPUs, developing manufacturing foundation models, and introducing AI for SMEs tailored to regional characteristics."
About 200 people attended the seminar, including Park Young-sun, Chairperson of the Strategic Economy Advisory Group; Heo Jang, second vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance; and KBIZ Chairman Kim Ki-moon, along with SME representatives and heads of cooperatives, and academia including Kang Myeong-su, president of the Korea Society of Small and Medium Business Policy Studies.