Two Organizations Sign Business Agreement on the 17th
Promoting the 'Win-Win Supply Chain Innovation Project'
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Economic Association have joined hands to promote win-win cooperation between large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
On the 17th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it signed a business agreement with the Korea Economic Association at the FKI Tower Conference Center in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, to promote "co-growth between large corporations and SMEs."
This business agreement was pursued to establish a public-private cooperative system for win-win cooperation between large corporations and SMEs, strengthen their future response capabilities, and promote co-growth. This comes in response to the increasing need for large corporations and SMEs to jointly address changes in the external environment such as global ESG (environment, social, governance) and carbon regulations, and digital transformation affecting the global export environment.
The two organizations plan to carry out initiatives such as "ESG response in large and SME supply chains," "support for SMEs' overseas expansion and exports," and "strengthening cooperation to spread an autonomous and creative co-growth culture."
First, they will promote the "win-win supply chain innovation project" to support supply chain-level responses to global ESG and carbon regulations. When large corporations establish supply chain innovation strategies, they plan to develop measures such as building an information-sharing system, consulting, and linkage support so that cooperating SMEs can respond together.
They will also assist startups and SMEs in overseas expansion and exports. Through the Korea Economic Association's management advisory group, composed of retired personnel and experts from large corporations, they will share the overseas expansion capabilities, experience, and know-how of large corporations to promote the overseas expansion of startups and SMEs with technological capabilities and competencies, and support the growth of early-stage export companies.
The foundation for spreading a culture of win-win cooperation and co-growth will also be strengthened. The two organizations agreed to discover and disseminate excellent win-win cooperation models involving large corporations and SMEs, and to cooperate in establishing "mutually beneficial" co-growth policies by collecting field opinions from large corporations and others.
Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups emphasized, "The core of this business agreement is that co-growth is not a 'one-way' support from large corporations as in the past, but a 'growing together' that complements each other's capabilities, promoting mutual cooperation among large corporations, SMEs, and innovative startups." He added, "I hope that this business agreement will serve as a foundation for large corporations and SMEs to open a new future together as strong partners in innovation."
Ryu Jin, Chairman of the Korea Economic Association, said, "Major large corporations have played a leading role in the Korean economy by growing together with numerous SMEs under the belief that 'the competitiveness of partners is our own competitiveness.'" He added, "I hope this will be an opportunity to lay the groundwork for SME growth through the public-private cooperation system, and the Korea Economic Association will make further efforts to practice the spread of co-growth."
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