The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) explored specific steps to shift the direction of policies from survival and maintenance to the private sector-initiated support based on innovative growth and the creation of outcomes, the ministry said on Sept. 28.
The MSS convened the 3rd Meeting of the SME Policy Deliberation Committee at the Seoul Government Complex.
The meeting was designed to explore specific and efficient SME policies that can realize dynamic growth in the same way the private sector leads and the government pushes.
First, the ministry discussed how to expand R&D to SMEs and make it efficient during the meeting.
Amid a widening technology gap between large-sized companies and SMEs, calls have been mounting that SMEs find it not easy to pursue innovative growth on their own, partly because of how the government’s R&D support projects are oriented.
As for this, the government has been considering a restructuring of its SME R&D support regime, with a goal of expanding the private sector-led SME R&D and making it more efficient.
The government and private sector discussed efficient steps to the extent on-site people can sense a difference during the meeting.
They decided to work out specific steps based on the outcomes of the discussions on R&D support, based on corporate autonomy, institutional reform and raising of cooperation among industry, academia and research circles.
The meeting also delivered and approved a plan to implement the evaluation of SME support projects for next year.
Evaluations will shift from survival and maintenance to a paradigm based on innovative growth and creation of outcomes. The scope of evaluations will be expanded from the current 5 billion won or more projects to all projects.
During the meeting, MSS decided to inaugurate indexes reflecting the characteristics of each business area, such as financing, technology and manpower and overhaul the current evaluation regime by introducing an expertise evaluation team’s face-to-face in-depth evaluation.
The ministry plans to implement the “Unmatched Startup 1000 Project,” designed to nurture 1,000 unmatched startups to secure an upper hand in global new markets amid the acceleration of the 4th Industrial Revolution and digital transformation.
The meeting discussed how to connect commercialization funds, R&D loans and guarantees to a choice of startups with excellent technology growth potential and matters essential for scaling up them like attracting of investments and global verification.
The ministry worked out strategies to restructure SME support for private sector-led innovative growth.
The government plans to overhaul the structure and method of SME support, which can contribute to raising sales and employment, not hindering their growth for private sector-led dynamic and innovative growth.
At the meeting, participants also exchanged views on ways of overcoming difficulties SMEs and merchants experience amid uncertainties of the global economy and how to explore the future new markets.
The ministry also discussed ways of building global innovative zones that could be utilized as bridgeheads for innovative SMEs in new industries to restructure the global raw material supply chain, overhaul logistics systems and enter global markets.
MSS Minister Lee Young, who presided over the meeting, said, “We’ve been racing to improve management conditions of SMEs and merchants struggling with hardships, caused by the COVID pandemic for four months since the inauguration of the new government.”
“Now is a significant moment in which it is necessary to restructure the ecosystem of industries so that SMEs can establish themselves as leaders of the Korean economy and the private and government sectors will join forces to concentrate their capabilities and implement policies in a speedy fashion,” she said.
_2022년 제3차 중소기업정책심의위원회.jpg)
