[Column] "100 Days of Activity, Only Experts" Large and Medium Enterprise Win-Win Special Committee, Will It Be Just for Show?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Special Committee for Win-Win Cooperation between Large and Small-Medium Enterprises (Win-Win Special Committee) under the Presidential Committee for National Integration will be fully operational starting next month. The Win-Win Special Committee is a campaign promise made by President Yoon Seok-yeol during his candidacy when he met with small business owners. However, its activity period is only 100 days, and industry insiders report that they were not even included in the list of committee members. If the committee’s discussions remain mere theoretical debates, the expectations of small business owners will turn into disappointment.

Small business owners hoped for the creation of a dedicated organization to resolve on-site difficulties and address the polarization issue between large and small-medium enterprises. A control tower was needed to review and coordinate policies scattered across various related ministries such as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. However, the government-announced Win-Win Special Committee is quite different. It is composed of no more than 10 private members and aims to achieve results through intensive activities over 100 days. It is questionable whether issues unresolved for the past 10 years can be solved in just over three months.

One source familiar with the committee’s composition said, “Small business owners are not included in the Win-Win Special Committee,” adding, “It is made up of neutral experts such as research fellows from the Korea Institute for Small and Medium Business and university professors.” Professor Han Jeong-hwa, an emeritus professor at Hanyang University and former head of the Small and Medium Business Administration, has been appointed as the committee chair.

The problem is that if the committee is composed mainly of experts detached from the field, it will be difficult to exert influence in policy implementation. This can be seen from the fact that the delivery price linkage system, which small businesses have persistently demanded, has not been introduced for 14 years and remains a long-standing issue. Without a unified voice from the government, political circles, and the private sector, it is difficult to change the unfair structure.

Selection and concentration are also necessary. At the “Dialogue with Small Business Owners” attended by Minister Lee Young of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 18th, the Korea Federation of SMEs listed industry-specific requests in a department store-like manner as before, and the ministry only gave hollow responses such as “We will review it” and “Consultation with related ministries is necessary.” When satisfactory results do not come out, the process itself must be reconsidered. The Win-Win Special Committee has not even started yet, but it is already losing momentum. Small business owners are closely watching whether it will contribute to resolving the polarization between large and small-medium enterprises and enhancing market fairness.