Minister Oh Young-joo: "Significantly Expanding Support Scope and Scale for Local SMEs Development"

On-site Meeting with Legend 50+ Participating Companies

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has expanded the scope of support for this year's 'Legend 50+' program to foster leading companies that will drive the region's main industries and local economy.

On the 14th, Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, visited Changwon, Gyeongnam, to encourage local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing difficulties due to changes in the internal and external environment, and held an on-site meeting to seek breakthroughs. This meeting was held at Daegun Tech, a space and defense parts company located in the Changwon National Industrial Complex, and six companies participating in Legend 50+ in the fields of aerospace, nuclear power, and advanced precision machinery?sectors that Gyeongsangnam-do is focusing on as future growth engines?were present.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups

This year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups increased the scope of support projects for Legend 50+ from six to nine and expanded the budget from 278 billion KRW last year to 431.7 billion KRW. Minister Oh explained, "Recently, with the strengthening of global protectionism and intensifying tariff wars, the export barriers for SMEs have risen, making the business environment more challenging. At times like this, enhancing corporate competitiveness is more important than anything else, so we have significantly expanded the scope and scale of support for Legend 50+, the Ministry's representative regional SME development model, this year."

At the meeting, Daegun Tech CEO Shin Ki-soo said, "Through Legend 50+, we have been able to continue technology development and explore overseas markets. We ask for additional institutional support to ensure that new SME personnel can settle stably on site." Jin Young TVX CEO Kim Jun-seop emphasized the need for government support, saying, "Companies with a high export ratio are experiencing difficulties due to exchange rate fluctuations." Director Kim Byung-chul of Yeongnam Metal also requested, "As the tariff war intensifies, we ask the government to do its best to prevent export companies from suffering disadvantages."

In response, Minister Oh said, "In a situation where external uncertainties are increasing, we have formed a ‘SME Support Task Force’ to minimize the difficulties faced by SMEs and are closely examining the impact of strengthened protectionism. We have allocated a budget of 619.6 billion KRW for SME export support, a 45% increase from last year, and plan to expand the operation of Global Business Centers (GBC) to 22 locations this year."

Minister Oh also stated, "As the tariff war intensifies, the export burden on SMEs is expected to increase. Therefore, we are operating a help desk to support SMEs that have entered countries subject to US taxation such as Mexico and Canada, and the government is also preparing support measures for companies returning domestically due to unavoidable production adjustments."

After the meeting, Minister Oh visited Taerim Industry, a representative smart factory company in Gyeongnam, to directly observe cases of digital transformation (DX) and artificial intelligence transformation (AX) in manufacturing sites. On that day, Taerim Industry CEO Oh Kyung-jin emphasized, "By optimizing production processes through AI-integrated 3D simulation, costs have been reduced and production volume increased, securing trust from global parts companies. Continuous government support is necessary for small manufacturing companies to change and grow by utilizing artificial intelligence."

Minister Oh said, "In a situation where global protectionism such as tariff wars is intensifying, the introduction of manufacturing AI will be a solution to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic small manufacturing companies," and added, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will prepare customized support measures to actively spread manufacturing AI among small manufacturing companies."