A Total of 11.3 Billion KRW in Support
Significant Overhaul of Project Implementation System
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups supports joint projects, market access support, education through collaboration academies, and incubating to build a collaborative ecosystem for strengthening the competitiveness and autonomous growth of small business owners.
On the 3rd, the Ministry announced the '2025 Small Business Collaboration Activation Project Plan' containing these details.
The Small Business Collaboration Activation Project is a program that supports joint production and sales, promotion and marketing, and organization to generate profits through collaboration among small business owners and to enhance self-reliance through economies of scale. Since 2013 until last year, the Ministry has invested a total of 247.8 billion KRW to support over 6,100 small business cooperatives.
This year, to establish a foundation for small business collaboration groups to grow together with local communities by linking and collaborating with external resources such as local universities and commercial district planners, the support tracks for joint projects have been newly created and expanded into three types, and customized market access support has been strengthened, significantly reorganizing the project implementation system.
First, to clearly derive support outcomes for various small business collaboration entities, the joint project support types are subdivided into Commercial District Type (focused on local commercial districts), Industry Type (linkage between same or different industries), and Cooperative Type (based on cooperatives), strengthening support tailored to the characteristics and purposes of each collaboration entity.
In particular, the Commercial District Type's Alley Management Package targets small to medium-sized commercial districts at risk of disappearance, supporting organization necessary for project implementation reflecting the characteristics of each region and commercial district, aiming to establish a self-reliance foundation for small commercial districts with fewer than 50 stores.
From this year, the scope of joint projects and market access projects, which were supported mainly for small business cooperatives until last year, will be expanded to 'collaboration groups of five or more members composed of at least 50% small business owners.' Intensive support will be provided for domestic and international market development such as online special exhibitions and live commerce targeting promising items.
The Collaboration Academy, which supports the discovery and education of small business cooperatives by region, will be expanded to four regions (Capital area, Central area, Honam area, Yeongnam area), and its function will be strengthened as a facilitation and incubating support institution according to the life cycle of small business collaboration groups.
To allow small business owners to experience the necessity of collaboration and the possibility of building collaboration models, a new voluntary task called 'First Step in Collaboration' has been introduced. Submission document simplification linked with NICE Credit Information and public MyData, registration disclosure of important assets for supported equipment, and follow-up management will also be strengthened.
This announcement first recruits 60 small business cooperatives to be supported under the Cooperative Type and two specialized institutions for Commercial District Type and Industry Type support. Subsequently, 20 small business collaboration groups (15 for Commercial District Type and 5 for Industry Type) that meet the criteria for Commercial District and Industry Types will be separately selected in May.
Lee Dae-geon, Director of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We will do our best to actively discover and nurture promising local small business collaboration groups, activate collaboration and resource sharing among small business owners, and create a sustainable growth model together with the local economy."
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