Small Business Growth Support 'Dream Team' Emerges

Ministry of SMEs, Hankyung Business Association, and KB Financial Group to Host '2024 Starcon Festa with Raicon'

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that on the 28th, together with the Korea Economic Association and KB Financial Group, it held the '2024 Starcon Festa with LICORN' at the Gwanghwamun Square Playground. LICORN is an innovative company in the lifestyle and local sectors aiming to become a unicorn.

This event is part of a large-scale public-private cooperation project to discover star small business owners with creative ideas, craftsmanship, and entrepreneurial spirit, supporting their leap to becoming global stars. The Korea Economic Association and KB Financial jointly hosted the event with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, with participation from the Small Enterprise and Market Service, Naver, Kakao, and others.

'2024 Starcon Festa with LICORN' will run for two weeks. On the opening day, the 28th, 52 small business teams participated. The opening day program included a variety of activities such as online and offline exhibitions, live commerce, small business consulting, awards ceremony for outstanding small business owners, citizen experience booths, food trucks, celebratory performances, and prize events.

From the 29th to the 31st, a special sales event will be held for three days at the KB Insurance building near Gangnam Station, and from the 28th to the 8th of next month, an online 'Starcon Special Exhibition' will continue for two weeks through Naver Shopping and KakaoTalk Shopping.

In particular, this festa saw the participation of many promising small business owners who developed, produced, and sold products with unique ideas and technologies, including companies participating in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘Entrepreneurial Small Business Development Program.’

Ryu Jin, chairman of the Korea Economic Association, said, “A dream team consisting of the government, local governments, the business community, financial institutions, and online platforms has been formed with the common goal of making star small business owners into global stars,” adding, “Starcon Festa will create a foundation for small business owners to grow well into enterprises, and the business community will devote itself to laying a solid ladder for corporate growth.”

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, “We will nurture small business owners beyond SMEs into global innovative companies, making them a new growth engine for Korea, and furthermore, we will solve various challenges Korea faces, such as regional economic crises and export-centered economic structures.”