Busan City Builds Corporate Growth Ecosystem to Provide Step-by-Step Customized Support
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Busan City has selected 43 ‘Busan-type Small Giants’ companies that will lead the innovative growth of Busan’s economy and the development of the regional economy.
The city announced on the 1st that, together with Busan Technopark, it has selected promising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at each stage of the growth ladder to establish a growth ecosystem from ‘small’ → ‘medium’ → ‘global companies.’
At the top of the growth ladder are global small giants. These are global leap companies. Fourteen companies with annual sales ranging from 10 billion to 100 billion KRW and export amounts exceeding 5 million USD occupy this group.
The selected companies include specialized firms in displays, electrostatic eliminators for semiconductor manufacturing, and measuring devices, such as Sunjae Hightech, which was selected as one of the ‘Top 100 Small Giants in Materials, Parts, and Equipment’ in 2019, and G-BiLight, the world’s number one company in shoe retroreflective materials applied to 80% of Nike shoes.
The average sales of the 14 selected companies last year were 40 billion KRW, and the export ratio to sales was 49.6%, indicating a group of companies with high global growth potential.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups provides these companies with vouchers worth 200 million KRW over four years to fully support overseas marketing and assist with overseas expansion and new product development. Busan City operates a dedicated support program providing about 20 million KRW per company to support their business.
The Busan-type Hidden Champion cultivation project is a preliminary program to foster global companies. From this year, it targets medium-sized enterprises with sales of 30 billion KRW or more. Six companies, including Taewoong, a representative regional medium-sized company producing forged and steel products; Taekwang Fujikin, a semiconductor fitting specialist; and Samyoung MT, an automotive parts specialist, are included.
The average sales of companies belonging to the Busan-type Hidden Champion last year were 138.6 billion KRW, and the three-year average R&D investment ratio was 2.2%, marking them as strong regional small giants. Busan City provides differentiated support of up to 90 million KRW annually for two years through dedicated programs for technology and commercialization support.
The next tier is the Busan Regional Star (Pre-Champion) company group. From this year, the average sales over the past three years have been expanded to 5 billion to 40 billion KRW, selecting 15 companies.
Representative companies include ABM, which focuses on solar power generation systems and metal roofing panels, and Sambo Industry, a specialist in worm gearboxes and bevel gearboxes for industrial valves. The selected companies have an average sales of 17.8 billion KRW over three years and an average sales growth rate of 8.5%, indicating highly growing specialized companies.
Support of up to 40 million KRW is provided in the first year for establishing corporate growth strategies and planning commercialization R&D projects, and in the second and third years, companies can receive up to 600 million KRW over two years through the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ R&D projects.
The bottom tier of the growth ladder is the newly established Busan Hidden Tech companies this year. These are promising companies with sales between 3 billion and 15 billion KRW, which are still small in scale and fall into the blind spot of government support.
The average sales of Busan-type Hidden Tech companies last year were 7.3 billion KRW, and the three-year average R&D investment ratio was 5.4%, indicating high growth potential.
They receive differentiated support of up to 40 million KRW annually for two years. Eight companies from various industries, including Youngchang Eco, which produces shoe insoles, Interbird, an IT company providing weather information, as well as companies in cosmetics, semiconductor parts, marine equipment, and software development, were selected.
Byun Sung-wan, Acting Mayor of Busan, said, “We have established a seamless growth system for small giants by creating the Hidden Tech company cultivation project targeting promising companies with low sales scale,” and added, “We will implement support policies tailored to the field so that regional SMEs can grow into global and world-class companies through the Busan-type growth ladder.”
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