Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Launch Support Council for Overseas Diplomatic Missions Assisting SMEs and Ventures

First Meeting of Four Missions Including the Consulate General in San Francisco
Signal for Supporting Small and Medium Venture Enterprises

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 19th that, as a follow-up measure to the business agreement made to support the global expansion of SMEs and startups, four diplomatic missions formed an SME and Startup Support Council and held the first meeting on the 17th.

The four diplomatic missions are the Consulate General in Los Angeles, the Consulate General in San Francisco, the Embassy in Singapore, and the Embassy in Vietnam.

This meeting was held to support the export and resolution of difficulties faced by SMEs and startups by forming a team centered on overseas diplomatic missions, related organizations, and the private sector, and to assist their entry into the global market.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The SME and Startup Support Council of overseas diplomatic missions is composed of overseas missions, local public institutions, large and small enterprises, lawyers, and private experts according to local circumstances.

In San Francisco, 82Startup, a representative organization of K-startups in Silicon Valley, participated, and in Los Angeles (LA), five local governments including Jeonbuk participated together.

At the first meeting, plans for operating the council to provide practical support related to the global expansion and export of domestic SMEs, startups, and ventures were discussed. Going forward, the council will regularly hold meetings to review collaboration plans among local institutions.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups expects that by next month at the latest, SME and Startup Support Councils will be formed in about 25 overseas diplomatic missions.

The Embassy in India and the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City are scheduled to hold their first meetings in the first week of next month, and nine other overseas missions, including Frankfurt, are accelerating the formation of their councils.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is also preparing to form a domestic SME and startup globalization support council to facilitate the smooth operation of the overseas diplomatic mission councils.

The domestic council will disseminate local information received from the overseas diplomatic mission councils within Korea and identify difficulties faced by globally expanding companies to relay them back to the overseas missions, enabling tailored solutions to be proposed.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, "I am grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for moving swiftly after the business agreement," adding, "We will promptly complete the formation of the domestic council and accelerate the global expansion of SMEs and startups in cooperation with the local councils."

Minister Cho Tae-yeol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized, "The activation of the overseas diplomatic mission councils will be a starting point to create tangible changes that our SMEs and startups expanding overseas can feel."