"Policy Demands of 8.5 Million SMEs Are Diverse... Support Must Be Tailored to Growth Types"

Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business and Korea Small Business Institute Hold 'Small Business Policy Symposium'

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business and the Korea Small Business Institute announced on September 29 that they held the 'Small Business Policy Symposium' at the KBIZ Hall of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business in Yeouido, Seoul. This symposium was organized to analyze the policy effects based on the various growth types of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to explore policy tasks for SMEs and venture businesses that can connect policy achievements to shared growth.

Oh Kiwung, Standing Vice Chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, said in his welcoming remarks, "The policy demands of 8.5 million SMEs are extremely diverse, and support must be tailored to their specific growth types," adding, "If the support targets and methods are further sophisticated and upgraded based on each growth type while considering the diverse characteristics of SMEs, these policies can be realistically implemented."

Cho Juhyun, President of the Korea Small Business Institute, stated in his opening address, "Policy achievements must be verified not by the quantity of support, but by the tangible change that has been produced," and added, "We will systematically analyze the effects of policies based on a company's growth type and potential for growth, and accumulate empirical evidence so that these findings can be reflected in more finely tuned growth support policies."

Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business

The first session presented directions for reforming the SME support system, focusing on growth potential and scalability. Kim Junyeop, Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Small Business Institute, analyzed about 244,000 SMEs and 67 growth promotion support programs in the SIMS (the SME Big Data Platform), reviewing the effects of policies according to each company's growth type and growth potential. According to the analysis, growth-oriented companies saw more substantial effectiveness from employment support, and companies with high growth potential experienced greater policy impact on sales. Based on these findings, Kim suggested that for growth acceleration support programs, beneficiaries should be selected through a preliminary evaluation based on growth and growth potential, and that the current system of short-term, small-scale, fragmented support should be shifted to a multi-year, large-scale, package-type scaling up support system.

The second session discussed the growth potential of SMEs and the impact of export support policies. Professor Jeon Gyehyung of Korea National University of Education used data from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the export voucher program to analyze the policy effect on small business exports and the differences according to company characteristics. The analysis found that export voucher support had a positive impact on the increase in exports of SMEs, with greater effects observed in non-exporting companies compared to existing exporters, and the effect was stronger for companies that already had a stable business foundation such as sales and experience.

In the subsequent integrated panel discussion, led by Acting Chairman Lee Byeongheon of the Committee for Balanced National Development, participants discussed topics such as how to ensure that support policies for SMEs translate into actual company growth, how to select support recipients, manage outcomes, and improve related institutional systems. Heejung Kim, Head of Economic Policy at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, highlighted, "All SMEs begin as startups and aim to progress from small to medium-sized and then to larger enterprises, but of all 8.5 million companies, 95.3 percent are micro-enterprises, and only 4.6 percent are small and medium enterprises, demonstrating how difficult it is to achieve growth." He emphasized, "For shared growth, it is extremely important to help the more than 8.1 million micro-enterprises grow into small and medium enterprises."

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