Agreement Reached to Hold the Korea-Japan SME Regular Meeting, Suspended Since 2018, This Year

Jungjingong-Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Foundation, Expansion of SME Exchange

The regular meeting between the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC) and the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ) will be held again this year. Since signing a business agreement with SMRJ in 1997, SBC has held a total of 18 regular meetings for policy exchange over about 20 years, but these meetings have been suspended since 2018.

On the 10th, SBC announced that it discussed cooperation plans to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of both countries with SMRJ in Tokyo, Japan. SMRJ is Japan's representative SME support organization established to build a foundation for revitalizing business activities of SMEs. Its main functions include establishing startup support funds, market access support, business succession support, mutual aid projects, and management consulting.

On the 10th, Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, is speaking at a meeting with the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation held in Tokyo, Japan.

This meeting was promoted to resume the regular meetings between the two organizations that had been suspended due to COVID-19 and to strengthen the cooperation system for expanding exchanges between SMEs of both countries. The two organizations agreed to hold a regular meeting in Japan in November this year and to conduct working-level consultations. At the regular meeting, resumed after six years, they plan to share SME support projects and cases on various topics such as startup activation and carbon neutrality, and discuss mutual cooperation plans to expand exchanges.

Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of SBC, said, “We have resumed exchanges with SMRJ, which had been suspended due to COVID-19,” and added, “As the representative SME support organizations of Korea and Japan join forces, we will closely cooperate to create synergy for the global advancement and innovative growth of SMEs.”