Korea Federation of SMEs Holds Meeting with Public Procurement Service Commissioner Lim Kigeun

Listening to Challenges in Public Procurement Policies

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced on May 13 that it held a meeting with small and medium-sized business owners, inviting Lim Kigeun, Commissioner of the Public Procurement Service, at its headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

This meeting was jointly organized by the Korea Federation of SMEs and the Public Procurement Service in commemoration of the 37th SME Week, with the aim of listening to the challenges faced by SMEs regarding public procurement policies.

On the side of SMEs, 23 representatives of industry-specific SME organizations attended, including Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, and Bae Jo-ung, Chairman of the Korea Ready-mixed Concrete Industry Cooperative Federation. From the Public Procurement Service, Commissioner Lim Kigeun, Kang Seongmin, Director General of Procurement Business, and others attended to hear firsthand about the difficulties faced by SMEs and to seek improvement measures.

During the meeting, SME representatives raised 22 issues that make it difficult for SMEs to enter the procurement market, including: strengthening the effectiveness of the contract amount adjustment system in response to price fluctuations; rationalizing the price determination system in the public procurement market; improving the unfair sanctions system; clarifying the application of procurement classification for converged products; and expanding the Gyeonggi Procurement Support Center into the Gyeonggi Regional Public Procurement Service. They requested active institutional improvements from the Public Procurement Service.

Chairman Kim stated, "Of the 208 trillion won public procurement market, SMEs supply 135 trillion won, accounting for 64.6%. The public procurement market is extremely important to SMEs," adding, "As SMEs are experiencing difficulties such as securing reasonable prices and excessive sanctions in procurement contracts, institutional improvements should be made based on the opinions from the field."