Chairman Park Seong-taik of the Korean Federation of SMEs (K-Biz) said the federation will provide financial supports to SMEs trying to launch their operations overseas this year.
He said a law will be established to pave the way for the globalization of SME operations this year as part of the B-Biz strategy to solve problems that SME members of K-Biz are faced with. This comes on the heels of devoting all of 2015 to streamlining the operation of K-Biz.
The chairman told a group of journalists at the head office in Yeouido, Seoul, that globalization for SMEs should be spurred so that the Korean economy can regain growth momentum. “To push the globalization of SMEs, we need a special law to back it up and K-Biz will push for its establishment this year at all costs,” the chairman pledged.
Park said the proposed law should integrate measures of all government ministries to support SMEs, and give the responsibility to carrying out those measures in the proposed law when it is promulgated.
He said the laws on providing support to R&D activities and marketing are there, but there is none for globalization and for global marketing support, such as the funds for the exploration of overseas markets. “All we want in the laws are that each concerned ministries will set up plans for providing support to the SMEs exports and monitor them through the systems,” Park said.
As a civilian organization, K-Biz plans to increase its budget for to support SMEs explorating overseas markets to 20 billion won this year from 18 billion won last year. The fund will also be used to host a number of events for overseas buyers in Korea, including a session for popular overseas buyers in Seoul and the global youth start-ups program.
The K-Biz chairman also said he will set up an export enterprise council and a team made up of experts in export policies inside K-Biz so that the voices of SMEs can be heard in the process of the legislation of the special laws on the support for the globalization of SMEs at the National Assembly this year.
Park also severely criticized the delay in passing legislation to revitalize the economy at the National Assembly, calling for a pan-national council to be made up of large business firms, SMEs, labor, government and academics to speed up the legislation of those proposed laws.
He said the legislators should pass laws and policies for the sake of economic growth, and refrain from the struggles for the interests of their factions and parties.
K-Biz this year has put forward up a slogan, saying “A Better World that SMEs Make,” under which K-Biz will strive for fair distribution of wealth and the recovery of fair market principles, the creation of growth environment, the expansion of SMEs social responsibility and the construction of the social safety net, all told 17 tasks in three major sectors of its operation.
K-Biz will also target building a bridgehead for expanding the markets in China and North Korea called the “May 24 Measure Free Zone.” Another target for the SME organization is to propose the development of joint brands of commodities among SMEs, and laws to give tailor-made support to the industries that were not able to get government support, including the SME service industry. The organization will also lead the civilian-led standard vitalization, and build a platform to purchase of raw materials with Korean currency and other measures to spur the activity of K-Biz.
As a result of the financial crisis in 1997, the Korean government focused restructuring efforts on the two areas of the economy most in need: financial institutions and big enterprises (i.e., chaebols). During this time the nation’s economy experienced drastic changes in the industrial structure, which in the past was centered around big businesses.
It was at this time that the government began to realize that they could no longer depend on large multinational firms to fuel the economy, leading them to shift more support to small and medium enterprises.
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A view of K-Biz headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. (Photos:KiBiz)
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