Chairman Kim Hak-do: "Foster SMEs as Key Players in Economic Structure Transformation"

Jungjingong Holds 2022 Non-Face-to-Face Online Opening Ceremony on the 3rd
First On-Site Visit of the New Year to KMC... Customized Support for Industrial Structure Restructuring Response

On the 3rd, Kim Hak-do, Chairman of the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (left), visited the site of KMC, an automobile parts manufacturing company located in Jinju, Gyeongnam, as his first task of the new year.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter referred to as SBC) announced on the 3rd that it held a New Year's opening ceremony for the Year of the Black Tiger 2022 in a non-face-to-face online format. Employees participated together through a live broadcast on the YouTube channel.

Chairman Kim Hak-do said, "The business environment that small and medium enterprises will face in the new year is also expected to be challenging," and added, "SBC must play a leading role at the forefront so that small and medium enterprises can overcome the crisis and take off once again."

In particular, through his New Year's address, Chairman Kim announced the key directions for business and organizational operations to proactively respond to changes in the business environment, emphasizing, "This year, small and medium venture businesses should be fostered as the main players in the economic structural transformation and become the foundation for sustainable growth by resolving K-shaped polarization." Regarding organizational operations, he also stated plans to strive to create a 'pleasant (harmonious), fast (efficient), and smart (professional) SBC' through direct communication with employees and enhancing fairness in internal regulations and procedures.

Following the opening ceremony, Chairman Kim visited the site of KMC (CEO Cha Jae-do), an automobile parts manufacturing company located in Jinju, Gyeongnam, as his first work of the new year. KMC, which has mainly produced parts for automobile internal combustion engines, has faced difficulties due to declining profitability caused by soaring raw material and labor costs and the gradual phase-out of internal combustion engine vehicles. As the industrial structure is rapidly reorganized around electric vehicles, recently, the company has been reducing investment in existing internal combustion engine-related areas and expanding the proportion of new items such as electric vehicle drive motor parts and transmission parts, promoting a transition. Utilizing SBC's manufacturing site smartization funds and export company globalization funds, they have introduced manufacturing equipment for electric vehicle parts and are also leading the expansion of exports of newly developed items.

Chairman Kim said, "To respond to the increasingly uncertain domestic and international environmental changes, small and medium venture businesses need efforts to improve productivity such as process improvement and continuous management innovation including the introduction of ESG management," adding, "SBC will systematically support small and medium enterprises' response to industrial structural reorganization and the transition and spread of ESG management through customized policy-linked support, and will back the securing of future growth engines for regional innovative companies."