Supporting Smart Manufacturing Innovation for SMEs... 'SmartBiz Expo' Held

Held at Seoul COEX Exhibition Center from 22 to 25
Hosted by Ministry of SMEs and Startups, co-organized by Korea Federation of SMEs and Samsung Electronics, etc.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 22nd that it will hold the '2024 Smart Biz Expo' at the COEX Exhibition Center in Seoul until the 25th.

Last '2022 SmartBiz Expo'/Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

This event was organized to expand the achievements of the 'Large-Small Win-Win Smart Factory Support Project,' which the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is promoting together with Samsung Electronics, and to provide new market development opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Large-Small Win-Win Smart Factory Support Project is a program that supports smart manufacturing innovation for SMEs. It helps SMEs build smart factories by utilizing the funds, experience, and technology of large corporations or public enterprises such as Samsung Electronics. Since 2018, a total of 311 billion KRW has been invested over the past seven years, enabling 5,961 SMEs to establish smart factories.

Hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and co-organized by the Korea Federation of SMEs and Samsung Electronics, this event features 99 SMEs from various industries including home appliances, food and beverages, daily necessities, machinery equipment, industrial goods, and parts and materials. Through four special themed halls (Cross Cooperation Hall 1 & 2, Innovation Hall, Export Hall), a purchasing consultation zone for business matching with domestic and international buyers, a live commerce studio supporting real-time purchasing consultations via live broadcast, on-site reports, and a win-win market, the event helps participating SMEs develop new sales channels.

On the day, Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups visited booths and export consultation areas set up at the venue to encourage SME entrepreneurs. Minister Oh said, "For our SMEs to overcome the limitations of the domestic market and enter the global market, smart manufacturing innovation is necessary," adding, "In line with the expo’s slogan, 'Sustainable Partnership Creating the Future,' the government will enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing companies through smart factories and foster specialized manufacturing companies to support this, thereby creating a sustainable ecosystem where small manufacturing companies and smart manufacturing specialized companies grow together."

Jung Yoon-mo, Executive Vice President of the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, "The Large-Small Win-Win Smart Factory Support Project is a representative exemplary case of win-win cooperation that transfers the manufacturing innovation experience and know-how of large corporations to SME sites. Especially from this year, it has been greatly helpful to SMEs by newly establishing projects such as focused support for smart factory 'advancement,' local government collaboration projects, food industry support projects, and support for strengthening ESG (environment, social, governance) capabilities," emphasizing, "We will continue to actively share the experience and know-how accumulated at Samsung, and we ask for interest and support from the government and the National Assembly to ensure that SME support policies continue to be promoted in the spirit of win-win cooperation between large and small enterprises."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.