By Kang Hyun-kyung
President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday instructed Cabinet ministers to draw up a set of tailored measures to help mid-tier companies, including the creation of a government body, to support these crucial firms.
Speaking in a meeting with the leaders of mid-tier firms at Cheong Wa Dae, Lee was quoted as saying that there are a few agencies and units supporting small- and medium-sized firms with policy measures and financial resources.
But such supportive measures or government agencies that provide tailored services for mid-tier companies don’t exist, he said.
“If business owners of these companies find themselves in trouble and try to find someone or a government body that can help them, where should they go?,” he asked Hong Seok-woo, minister of knowledge economy, who was also at the meeting.
Hong said the knowledge ministry is overseeing policy measures for these companies and that he is considering establishing a division solely dedicated to forging policy measures for mid-tier companies.
The President urged the knowledge minister to come up with bigger, more tailored support for them.
Lee proposed a government agency that can assist human resources as well as business loans for those companies, adding the ministry will need to review whether his idea would be feasible.
Mid-tier companies are the ones standing somewhere between small- and medium-sized firms and conglomerates. Currently 1,291 mid-tier companies exist in the nation.
These firms account for 0.04 percent of the number of businesses here, but job creation from these companies accounts for 8 percent.
They are the key driver of the nation’s exports. Lee invited 81 business leaders from these companies, as well as Cabinet ministers, to the meeting.
Lee spoke with them before a luncheon. Cabinet ministers, including Hong, briefed them on plans to support mid-tier firms.
Hong said that from 2008 to 2010 nearly 380 small- and medium-sized firms transformed into mid-tier ones, saying the knowledge ministry will draw up a comprehensive plan to help more small- and medium-sized firms become mid-tier companies.