Let's Innovate Safety... Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency Accepts Applications for Safety Investment Innovation Project

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency will begin accepting applications for the Safety Investment Innovation Project targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) starting from the 18th.

This project is an innovative safety initiative that supports the replacement of hazardous machinery and improvement of dangerous processes to prevent industrial accidents by fundamentally securing safety in SMEs.

It provides support for replacing hazardous machinery such as non-certified mobile cranes and improving aged and dangerous processes in manufacturing industries like the root industry. This is a financial support project implemented over three years since 2021 to fundamentally secure safety in SMEs and strengthen corporate competitiveness.

This year, with a budget of about 320 billion KRW, it plans to support the replacement of approximately 2,000 hazardous machines and the improvement of about 2,200 dangerous processes.

Business Procedure.

This year, the Safety Investment Innovation Project has revamped the selection method for support targets to enhance the industrial accident prevention effect through financial support.

First, to help establish a self-regulatory prevention system centered on risk assessment even in SMEs, if a workplace is selected as a ‘Risk Assessment Recognized’ workplace by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency for excellent risk assessment activities, it will be given preferential treatment during the support target evaluation.

Also, when applying for dangerous process improvements, the business plan submitted by the workplace has been improved from a simple descriptive format of existing process problems to a method that derives risks of the existing process through risk assessment.

To support industrial accident prevention for financially vulnerable workplaces even if they have 50 or more regular workers, the support target has been expanded to workplaces with 50 or more regular workers whose average sales by industry correspond to the small enterprise size standard.

When selecting priority support targets, support will be strengthened by awarding additional points during evaluation for workplaces with fewer than 5 employees and those applying for process improvements involving hazardous machinery closely linked to production processes, such as lifts and six types of machines subject to safety inspections.

Business owners wishing to receive support can apply for two months starting from the 18th through the ‘Safety Investment Innovation Project’ website. The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency will select support targets sequentially based on priority selection criteria for the workplaces that apply each month.

Since many workplaces will be prioritized for selection early in the year for prompt support, it is recommended to apply as soon as possible if you wish to receive support.

This innovation project also supports installment lease financing linked with financial institutions to reduce the burden of raising investment costs, considering the vulnerable financial conditions of SMEs.

Additionally, for dangerous process improvements that require significant investment costs, support is linked with industrial accident prevention facility fund loans (interest rate 1.5%) to further ease the burden.

For more details, please check the Safety Investment Innovation Project website or contact by phone.

Director An Jong-joo said, “According to the roadmap to reduce major accidents, we aim to establish a self-regulatory prevention system centered on risk assessment to lower the accident death rate to the level of advanced countries by 2026.”