Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Eradicate Unreasonable Practices Affecting SMEs and Small Business Owners

First and Second Vice Ministers of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Engage in On-site Communication

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on May 29 that the First and Second Vice Ministers have consecutively held on-site roundtable meetings to address and improve unreasonable practices affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners.

The Ministry is working to identify and improve unreasonable systems that have become entrenched as long-standing practices in the field for SMEs and small business owners, as well as unfair business transactions and inefficient administrative procedures that do not align with current times.

To this end, since April, the Ministry has set up a public suggestion portal on its website and has been actively identifying issues through various means, such as holding internal working-level staff discussions. In particular, a task force for identifying normalization tasks, led by private sector experts, is systematically working to establish practical measures for institutional improvement.

On May 28, First Vice Minister Noh Yongseok visited Seoshin Food in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, to listen to the on-site difficulties and discuss improvement plans regarding expanding support for technology development (R&D) to strengthen SME manufacturing innovation capabilities, spreading SME testbed factories, and improving technology protection systems. On May 29, an expert roundtable was held to identify and improve chronic unfair trade practices and inefficient administrative procedures on the ground at SMEs.

Second Vice Minister Lee Byungkwon also held a roundtable on the same day to identify specific cases of damage experienced by SMEs and small business owners who sell on online platforms, such as commission burdens, excessive price competition and restricted search exposure, and the passing on of refund and logistics costs. Based on these on-site voices, the Ministry plans to actively incorporate the suggested tasks into its policies and promote the institutionalization of win-win cooperation for online platforms.

The Ministry has already begun improvement procedures for tasks identified so far that can be addressed internally, such as revising enforcement decrees or rules and reorganizing internal guidelines.

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