The government has established a fair growth plan aimed at resolving unfair transactions between large and small enterprises and eradicating technology theft. It will expand the linkage system of procurement prices and extend the tax credit for win-win payment until 2028. There is also a policy to strengthen the evidentiary disclosure system and punitive damages system to respond to technology theft. The government stated that it will eradicate unfair trading practices and institutionalize support for collaborative structures.
On the 22nd, the government announced its economic policy direction for the new administration, called the 'economic growth strategy.' The government presented 'fair growth' as one of the pillars of economic policy to be pursued over the next five years.
◇ Expansion of the procurement price linkage system to include energy expenses
The government has stated that it will first enhance the effectiveness of the procurement price linkage system to establish fair trading order between large and small enterprises. Until now, only the increase in raw material prices was subject to linkage, but going forward, energy costs such as electricity and gas will also be included to ensure that cost burdens are reflected fairly. Although small businesses have been compensated to some extent for fluctuations in raw material prices, they often could not reflect the increased costs due to soaring energy prices in the pricing. It is expected that this measure will ease the burden on the manufacturing and small business sectors that are highly reliant on energy.
The government will first strengthen civil restraining measures so that small businesses harmed by unfair transactions can quickly obtain relief. This will be done by broadening the scope in which one can file a direct claim for the prohibition of unfair practices at the court without going through the Fair Trade Commission. The scope will be expanded to include unfair practices under the Subcontracting Act, Franchise Business Act, Distribution Industry Development Act, and Agency Act in addition to the existing unfair practices under the Fair Trade Act.
The tax credit applied when small and medium enterprises make payments through win-win payment, which was set to expire this year, will be extended to 2028. Win-win payment is a system that allows large enterprises to pay cooperating small businesses for supplied goods through banks, providing immediate payment like cash, thus assisting the liquidity of cooperating firms. The deduction rates will remain at 0.5% for payments made within 15 days, 0.3% for 16-30 days, and 0.15% for 31-60 days. Additionally, a win-win payment linkage function will be added to the 'Subcontractor Safety System' to expand public institutions' participation in win-win payments.
Monitoring of technology theft will also be significantly strengthened. A 'Korean-style evidentiary disclosure system' will be newly introduced, allowing the court to appoint experts to conduct on-site investigations and collect evidence. Furthermore, the court will be granted the authority to order the Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to submit data, and an exception clause regarding the confidentiality obligations of public officials will also be established for this purpose. In damages lawsuits, a standard guideline for assessing damages will be created to ensure effectively punitive damages, applying realistic assessment criteria.
◇ Utilize large-scale enterprise infrastructure to nurture small businesses
The performance-sharing system will be expanded. The initiative, which was previously limited to cooperation between commissioned and contracting corporations, aims to broaden the culture of win-win cooperation by extending it to platform, distribution, and IT service sectors. The intention is to further establish the performance-sharing system that mutualizes the results of collaborative activities between large and small enterprises.
The evaluation of the index for shared growth will gradually expand its scope. Currently, 239 large corporations and 134 public institutions are targeted, but in the future, banks and online platform companies will also be included. Additional specialized indicators by industry and the latest issue indicators will be incorporated to enhance evaluation discrimination. Furthermore, a dedicated 'Shared Finance Index' for the financial sector will be introduced to promote stable shared growth between small businesses and banks. The targeted institutions will gradually be expanded by 2026 to include top banks by the scale of small business loans, such as corporations, National, Hana, Shinhan, Woori, and NongHyup.
To encourage the creation of a win-win cooperation fund, the expiration of tax credits for contributions will also be extended until 2028. The win-win cooperation fund, currently at around 200 billion won annually, will gradually be expanded to encourage corporations to voluntarily create cooperation resources.
The government has decided to also foster human resources in small businesses using the infrastructure of large corporations. By establishing a specialized joint training center for artificial intelligence (AI), it will provide education and training to 3,000 small business employees annually, and will also spread public-private partnership open innovation and technology sharing models. Unused excellent technologies held by large corporations and public institutions will be transferred free of charge to small and medium enterprises, along with support for the production of prototypes and commercialization funds.