"Smart Mirrors and Serving Robots..." Recruiting Associations and Groups to Spread Smart Technology to Small Business Owners

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is recruiting small business associations and organizations to promote the smart store technology dissemination project from the 23rd of this month until the 28th of next month.

Since last year, the Ministry has designated smart pilot shopping districts and supported the dissemination of smart technologies applying 4th Industrial Revolution technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Internet of Things (IoT) to small business stores within these districts. Examples of smart technologies include the 'smart mirror,' which allows customers to virtually experience styling and fitting, and the 'serving robot,' which delivers food to tables.

So far, the Ministry has designated smart store pilot shopping districts and supported the introduction of smart technologies on a store-by-store basis. However, during this process, some small business owners expressed the opinion that government support would be helpful in selecting technologies suitable for their industry characteristics.

Accordingly, the Ministry plans to select associations and organizations by industry to develop smart store models and establish a separate track to support the introduction of highly applicable smart technologies for member small business stores.

The Ministry will select about five associations or organizations. The final selected associations will participate in demand surveys and technology dissemination for their member small business stores.

Shin Jae-kyung, Head of Smart Small Business Development at the Ministry, said, "Through this industry-specific smart store support announcement, we expect that technologies with high applicability in each industry will be disseminated," adding, "The government will continue to encourage private organizations to cooperate and lead the digital transformation of small businesses."

Detailed announcement information can be found on the websites of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small Enterprise and Market Service.