The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ), established in 1962, marked its 60th anniversary this year.
Sixty years ago, Korea was a nation earning $82 in national income per person, making it poorer than most African countries. Mothers cut their long hair, and daughters made wigs made with the hair and exported them.
Korea, starting to pry open foreign markets with albums, toys, GoldStar TVs and Pony cars, has now been catapulted to the global No. 8 trade powerhouse by exports, such as smartphones and semiconductors.
SME businessmen and workers are hidden champions since they toiled to rebuild the nation by committing themselves to making the country prosperous. Here is a look back into 60 years of their hard work.
President Yoon Suk-yeol took time to mingle with businessmen while attending an event at the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul, on May 25.
The event was designed to give words of encouragement to SME businessmen. About 550 SME businessmen, hailing from all parts of the nation, participated in the event to exchange candid communications with President Yoon.
The event took place recently after the new government was inaugurated. SME businessmen, as hosts, invited chairmen of the top five conglomerates to the event.
In the past, former president Lee Myung-bak had a meal with 500 invited SME businessmen at the Nokjiwon Garden of Cheong Wa Dae.
After a lengthy interruption, President Yoon invited SME businessmen to the meeting.
KBIZ Chairman Kim Ki-moon recalled the emotional moments of the meeting at an interview with a vernacular daily at KBIZ headquarters in Yeouido on Oct. 12.
Chairman Kim said, “The event was designed to celebrate KBIZ’s 60th anniversary. SME businessmen, playing a leading role, issued invitations to chairmen of the top five conglomerates.”
KBIZ Chairman Kim, not the Presidential Office, contacted the top five business leaders, who accepted the invitations gladly.
Chairman Kim said, “I’m greatly appreciated for President Yoon, who had mingled with businessmen, as he did during his presidential campaign, and President Yoon and ministers talked with business leaders in separate tables and lent an ear to grievances and complaints businessmen experience.”
President Yoon told related ministers to solve issues, such as employing of immigrant workers, when he listened to businessmen’s grievances, Chairman Kim said.
Chairman Kim said businessmen were paying keen attention to the way the President Yoon Suk-yeol government prioritizes SMEs.
President Yoon’s invitation of SME businessmen at the new government’s first event is an example of a departure from the previous government. SME businessmen are interested whether a conglomerate-oriented growth strategy paradigm would change, he said.
Not only President Yoon but also Prime Minister Han Duck-soo have lent an ear to SME businessmen’s voices.
Chairman Kim said, “Prime Minister Han convened a debate on regulatory reform in August and KBIZ submitted 229 regulatory reform targets, including the abolishing of an immigrant worker quota system and SMEs’ entry into industrial complexes.”
Prime Minister Han looked into KBIZ’s proposals one by one meticulously during the two-hour debate. An inter-ministry regulatory reform task force team is examining the regulatory reform tasks, submitted by KBIZ.
KBIZ Chairman Kim is 68 years of age. In 1988, he launched the watch brand “Romanson,” which grew into a company with about 100 billion won in annual sales.
As the watch market declined, Kim changed his business into the jewelry and fashion company “J.ESTINA” in 2016.
As an increasing number of SME businessmen, including Kim, are in an advanced age, a family business succession is an immediate task, required to be addressed urgently.
“CEOs aged 70 or more number 20,000, and 76 percent of CEOs cite the tax burden as the biggest issue hindering family business recession,” Chairman Kim said. The Ministry of Economy and Finance decided to reflect the long-standing matters related to family business recession in a tax revision plan for next year, he said.
“The stark reality is that CEOs have toiled and moiled to make their companies successful, but they cannot inherit them to their offspring due to a lack of money to pay taxes,” Chairman Kim said.
“As baby boomers are becoming elderly, CEOs aged 70 or more are expected to surge to 100,000 to 200,000,” he added.
Chairman Kim said, “International raw material price hikes, caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and global supply chain crisis are threatening SMEs’ management.” KIBIZ proposed four policies to overcome multiple crises at the Leaders’ Forum, hosted by KBIZ in Jeju in September.
The first of the tasks involves legislation of an act requiring subcontractors’ prices indexing raw material price hikes.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Fair Trade Commission are implementing a pilot project related to subcontractors’ prices indexing raw materials price hikes.
KBIZ Chairman Kim stressed revamping of an immigrant worker quota system and the 52-hour work week system, being operated in a inflexible way.
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