ESG Education and Consulting for Partner SMEs in Collaboration
The Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership has joined forces with Korea Rural Community Corporation and Korea Power Exchange to promote the internalization of ESG management among local small and medium-sized partner companies.
On July 10, the Commission announced that it had signed a joint business agreement with these public enterprises to implement the 2025 ESG support program for partner companies. The agreement aims to enable public institutions and local SMEs to practice ESG together, build a sustainable supply chain, and proactively respond to global ESG regulations.
Under the agreement, Korea Rural Community Corporation and Korea Power Exchange will jointly contribute to a mutual cooperation fund and co-develop customized ESG evaluation indicators based on the Commission's standard ESG guidelines for SMEs. Based on this, the two agencies will provide comprehensive support to partner SMEs throughout the entire process, including ESG education, self-assessment, on-site inspections (consulting), and improvement activities. The Commission plans to issue an 'ESG Excellent SME Certificate' to partner companies with outstanding compliance with ESG indicators.
Korea Rural Community Corporation has participated in this project for four consecutive years since 2022, and Korea Power Exchange has participated for three consecutive years since 2023. Each institution is enhancing its level of support by leveraging industry characteristics and experience, as well as its know-how in ESG practices. In particular, this year, the focus will be on strengthening supply chain management and human rights and ethical management systems for partner SMEs by developing ESG indicators tailored to industry characteristics and reinforcing an effective consulting system to achieve substantial capacity improvement.
Lee Dalgon, Chairman of the Commission, stated, "This agreement will serve as a starting point for public institutions and local SMEs to fully internalize ESG management, not merely as an external requirement, but as an integral part of their business strategy and value chain." He added, "We will actively support the creation of a sustainable supply chain so that the number of local companies with global competitiveness can increase."
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