SEOUL, KOREA --- The new minister of Knowledge Economy, Hong Suk-woo announced at a press conference on the 24th that Korea’s trading volume is expected to reach USD 1trillion with a USD 29billion trade surplus by the 5th or 6th of December, and suggested a new framework to nurture small and medium enterprises (SME) in order to reach its target of a USD 2trillion trading volume.
The minister is going to enhance policies to improve the competitiveness of SME’s, because it is important for SMEs to grow into major companies and perform as well as big companies in order to achieve the target.
He underlined that “the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) have to work in synergy as a single industry fostering system. We are planning to increase the R&D budget, knowing that failure is also a future asset. We will also try to spread the sprit of shared growth early in the process stage.
Minister Hong said MKE’s priority of mid-term nurturing policy is to upgrade its system. He defined SMBA as the office to directly contact small and medium enterprises, and said MKE has individual relationships with each of SMBAs and KIPOs and he will design a system that can properly utilize this relationship. Also he will increase the R&D budget for SMEs and make sure the spirit of shared growth is accepted among companies no matter how big they are. Also he said communication is the key for problems and he will work on spreading the spirit of shared growth between big and small companies.
Meanwhile, regarding organizing new a IT policy committee in MKE, the minister is planning to arrange a venue to invite IT leaders within this year, and it will be an opportunity to listen to the various opinions on the need for an IT support tower.
Refer to news article titled : South Korea’s Trading Volume to Reach $US 1 Trillion Dollars This Year
