President Park Cheol-kyu of the Small & Medium Business Corp. (SBC); Ngyyen Hoa-Cuong, deputy head of the Agency for SMEs at the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (ASMED); Wimonkan Konsumas of the Thai Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP); Hiroshi Takada, president of the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ); and Rohana Ramly, deputy CEO at the Malaysian Small and Medium Industries Development Corp. (SMIDEC) stand hand in hand at the 9th East Asia SME Roundtable Meeting for the purpose of sharing SME policies. (Photo: SBC)
The Small & Medium Business Corp. (SBC) hosted the 9th East Asia SME Roundtable Meeting for the purpose of sharing SME policies and building a global network at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouidou, Seoul, on May 15.
Participating in the meeting were SBC President Park Cheol-kyu; Ngyyen Hoa-Cuong, deputy head of the Agency for SMEs at the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (ASMED); Wimonkan Konsumas of the Thai Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP); Hiroshi Takada, president of the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ); and Rohana Ramly, deputy CEO at the Malaysian Small and Medium Industries Development Corp. (SMIDEC); along with 20 working level officials.
The East Asia SME Roundtable Meeting was inaugurated in 2006 at the recommendation of the SMRJ.
The SBC, the chair of the 9th East Asia SME Roundtable Meeting, introduced its roles in the government’s major task of creating jobs such as the improvement of public’s understanding of SMEs, the matching of up-and-coming startup firms and youth jobseekers, and the operation of the Youth Start-up Academy.
SMRJ presented “J-Good Tech,” a program for promoting SMEs’ on-line exports, while SBC offered the operational knowhow and experiences on the corporation’s one-on-one project for overseas buyers and B2C marketing projects.
SMIDEC gave a briefing on Malaysia’s program for supporting SMEs’ marketing efforts. OSMEP and ASMED each introduced their own human resources development program.
The SBC invited an officer in charge of industry cooperation at SMIDEC and held a one-on-one meeting with Korean companies wanting to make an overseas entry after last year’s 8th East Asia SME Roundtable Meeting in Malaysia. The SBC also revamped its company diagnosis system by taking into account Malaysia’s system, the SME '
Competitiveness Rating for Enhancement (SCORE).
Cho Nae-gwon, head of the SBC’s global business division, said, “This meeting is designed to take stock of the outcomes of cooperative efforts the participating countries have so far promoted; to explore new areas of cooperation; to build a global network among the SME organizations; and to promote mutual cooperation and exchanges on SME policies.” He went on to say that the discussions of the meeting would be a great boon in firming up systems for supporting SMEs.
An Exhibition of Korean-made SME Products
The SBC held an exhibition of Korean-made SME products in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 7 prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup as part to its global marketing efforts to promote SME products along with K-Wave cultural content.
The exhibition, jointly hosted by the SBC and KBS Music Bank, was the second of the SBC’s public activities to promote SME products, following the Korean Culture and Excellent SME Products Festival that took place in Shanghai this past April.
Among the exhibits were a selection of 30 fashion, cosmetics, outdoors, and IT products, as well as traditional Korean foods, including K-HIT outlet items and HIT500 Project products.