Support for 150 Small and Venture Companies Hoping for 'Smartization'

2020 SME Smart Service Support Project Participant Recruitment Announcement

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 13th that it is recruiting companies to participate in the 'SME Smart Service Support Project,' which supports the smartization of services for small and venture businesses using advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI).

Smart services are predictive services utilizing ICT technologies such as big data and AI. This project is newly introduced this year by the Ministry alongside smart factories and smart stores to realize a 'Smart Korea.' Recruitment for participating companies will be conducted from May 21 to June 12, and the Ministry will support small and venture businesses with up to 50% of the project cost per company, up to a maximum of 60 million KRW, for the introduction of ICT solutions such as big data and AI necessary for creating smart services.

The support areas include three fields: corporate innovation services, online economic services, and public services. First, the corporate innovation services field aims to improve the productivity and quality of services by utilizing chatbots for non-face-to-face customer response, process automation (RPA) for automating simple repetitive tasks, and non-face-to-face work solutions.

The online economic services field supports the creation of high value-added and new business models through the online transformation of services provided by companies to customers, such as fresh food dawn delivery using advanced ICT, online food delivery, telemedicine, and online education. The public services field involves developing service models that help solve social problems, such as COVID-19 maps and mask maps, or jointly introducing industry-specific platforms by cooperatives or companies in the same industry so that many companies and citizens can benefit.

The Ministry emphasized focused support so that small and venture businesses can proactively respond as the transition to untact and online economy accelerates due to COVID-19, and announced that it will mandate the sharing of de-identified data generated from the introduction of smart services to establish a foundation for the collection, analysis, and sharing of SME service data in line with the digital transformation.

Small and venture businesses wishing to apply for the project can form a consortium with solution providers or apply independently. After application, support tasks will be finally selected through written and on-site evaluations by the project executing agency and final evaluation by the dedicated agency. Won Young-jun, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry, stated, "In a situation where the transition to untact and online economy is accelerating due to COVID-19, smart services using big data and AI are not a choice but a necessity," adding, "Through this project, we expect not only to improve the service competitiveness of small businesses but also to establish a data-sharing foundation among companies, laying the cornerstone for the digital transformation."