Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Announce 2025 Support Project Areas Within the Year

Announcement of Support Projects in 6 Sectors to Complete Rapid Budget Execution This Year

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups recently announced on the 22nd that it plans to promote the rapid execution of the 2025 support project budget to overcome the difficult economic situation such as the economic slowdown. To this end, support projects will be integrated by sector, including small business owners, policy funds, startups, research and development (R&D), exports, and manufacturing innovation, and the announcement will be completed within the year.

The sector-specific announcement plan will begin with the export sector on the 23rd, followed by the policy fund sector such as SME and small business loans on the 26th, and the business sector supporting small business owners and self-employed individuals will be announced on the 27th. In addition, the R&D sector supporting technology development for SMEs will be announced on the 30th, and the startup sector on the 31st.

Furthermore, detailed project announcements that guide the budget, support targets, application methods, and support procedures for each sector's detailed projects are planned to be mostly completed within January 2025. However, some projects requiring procedures such as new projects, selection of executing agencies, consultation with ministries, and system construction may be delayed.

By proceeding in this way, the integrated announcements by sector and individual project announcements for the 2025 support projects will be conducted about 1 to 2 months earlier than in previous years. This is to quickly execute budget projects considering the current difficult economic situation and to support the rapid recovery and normalization of SMEs and small business owners.

In particular, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has prepared an active execution plan, such as executing 100% of the budget for 54 projects including startup growth technology development (R&D), startup commercialization support, and regional specialized industry promotion in the first half of next year to revitalize domestic demand. Also, to promote the rapid execution of the 2025 budget, a specific execution inspection system will be established to monitor the execution rate by project, and projects with poor execution so far will be separately managed intensively to ensure smooth execution.

To enhance public understanding of the support projects, comprehensive briefings both on-site at 13 regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration offices nationwide and online, as well as visiting briefings, will be held as soon as possible after the sector-specific announcements. Lee Dae-hee, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “We plan to promote the 2025 project announcements early in the year, swiftly execute the budget including concentrated execution of major projects in the first quarter, and carefully manage them to focus on revitalizing domestic demand and restoring people’s livelihoods.”