Moon vows to help SMEs grow
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with around 200 executives from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and venture startups at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in said Monday he will drive initiatives to cultivate new technologies with the government to offer more financial and administrative assistance to local startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“South Korea plans to invest a record amount of 20 trillion won on the research and development (R&D) in technologies for industrial parts, materials and promising equipment. SMEs with innovative business ideas will become the main beneficiaries as the government put up an additional 1.1 trillion won for spending on R&D designated for SMEs,” Moon said during a meeting with some 200 executives at local SMEs and venture startups at Cheong Wa Dae.
The President said the government will be quick to remove cumbersome regulations for startups to help them explore new business opportunities with more hiring. The government plans to begin the operation of the “regulation-free industrial zones” from this year in accordance with the initiatives.
“SMEs and venture startups will be allowed to test their newly-developed technologies. They can commercialize them, there, if they want to. The government plans to build 4,000 more smart factories and two smart industrial zones by the end of this year,” the President said.
A smart factory is a type of manufacturing process embedded with advanced production facilities to improve productivity and safety whilst saving costs at workplaces.
“SMEs and venture startups are the backbone to make the human-oriented growth initiatives actually happen because they account for more than 80 percent of the country's total hiring. Without job creation from SMEs and venture startups, it's impossible to address employment-related issues,” the President said, adding the government will put more emphasis on pursuing balanced growth between SMEs and conglomerates.
The government earlier proposed a new law to lift some tough regulations; however, some acknowledged it would be neither easy nor quick as mediating existing interests requires sufficient time and a difficult process.
At a previous briefing of the industry ministry's 2019 policy objectives, Moon said innovation and growth of SMEs in the manufacturing industry should be the “key pillar” of Seoul's industrial development policy to build an innovative and even inclusive economy.
“The government has been steady to create an eco-system for co-growth between SMEs and venture startups for job growth and to find new growth engines. We will be very active to fix irregular price fixing on materials and parts that they supply to larger companies,” Moon said.
Separately, Cheong Wa Dae said Moon will hold a press conference on Jan. 10 to explain his administration's top policy objectives for this year. Moon himself will directly mediate the 100-minute conference by answering questions regarding various issues from local politics to inter-Korean relations from local and foreign journalists.