Ministry of SMEs and Startups Begins On-Site Function Redesign for Regional SME Agencies

The First Step to Establish a Regional SME Support Governance System

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Institute for Startup & Entrepreneurship Development announced on the 21st at the Inspire Business Center in Seoul that they will hold a kickoff meeting to present the ‘Research Plan for Enhancing the Functions of Regional SME Offices’ and gather opinions from experts in academia and research sectors to proceed with policy research.

Amid recent rapid changes in domestic and international policy environments and increasingly segmented field demands, there is a strong call from the field for strengthening the regional specialized administrative service support system that connects policies and the field to promptly resolve the complex difficulties faced by SMEs.

To meet these field demands, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to start the ‘Research on Enhancing the Functions of Regional SME Offices’ together with experts from the Korea Institute for Startup & Entrepreneurship Development, universities, and research institutions.

The main research tasks include analyzing changes in policy environments and demands such as regional extinction and aging, the rise of the silver economy, the impact of the U.S. presidential election results, and polarization resolution. Additionally, it will discover effective measures to expand the field contact points of regional SME offices and strengthen the ‘bridge role between policy and field.’

In particular, the research tasks will include preparing an ‘integrated support system’ that encompasses regional SME support functions with regional SME offices as hubs, and proposing collaborative projects among regional offices at the metropolitan base unit, reorganizing organizations and functions suitable for the advent of the regional era.

Furthermore, it will also study urgent issues such as establishing a rapid response system for field support centered on regional SME offices to detect economic crisis signs and respond to risks by region.

No Yong-seok, Policy Planning Officer of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Through this policy research, we have taken the first step toward establishing a ‘field-oriented and intelligent connection governance’ system that implements field-close administration centered on regional SME offices and encompasses support for local SMEs,” adding, “Going forward, we plan to continuously innovate regional SME policies and policy delivery systems by closely analyzing the operational performance and improvement points of infrastructures that function as various field contact points such as regional SME offices and public institution regional bases.”