Business Agreement to Support the Establishment of Industrial Safety for SMEs
The Korea SMEs and Startups Agency announced on the 21st that it had signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Supporting the Establishment of Industrial Safety for SMEs' with KB Financial Group.
This business agreement was promoted to prevent serious industrial accidents in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to support the creation of safe working environments through public-private cooperation. The signing ceremony was attended by Sung Sook Han, Minister of SMEs and Startups, Seokjin Kang, Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, and Jonghee Yang, Chairman of KB Financial Group.
Minister Han Sung-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (second from left) and Kang Seok-jin, Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (third from left), are posing for a commemorative photo at the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency-KB Financial Group business agreement ceremony held on the 19th. Korea SMEs and Startups Agency
Under the agreement, the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency will identify and nurture outstanding SMEs with safety technologies and recommend them, while KB Financial Group will support the recommended safety technology companies with funding. The two organizations aim to contribute to eliminating industrial safety blind spots for SMEs by establishing a virtuous cycle in which these companies' technologies are linked to improvements at other SME worksites.
The main contents of the agreement include: ▲ development and operation of programs to prevent serious accidents and create safe working environments; ▲ identification and support of outstanding SMEs with safety-related technologies; and ▲ cooperation between the two organizations by linking their key projects, including policy financing.
In particular, the core of this agreement lies in its public-private partnership structure utilizing a 'pay-for-success financing' model, which has been adopted in advanced countries such as the United Kingdom. Pay-for-success financing provides financial rewards only when predetermined goals are achieved. Unlike simple subsidy support, this model guarantees the autonomy of participating companies and encourages voluntary efforts. Accordingly, companies possessing safety technologies can set their achievements in supporting improvement activities at other SMEs as performance targets, and if these targets are met, they can receive additional budgetary support.
Sung Sook Han, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, "This agreement will serve as an exemplary case of cooperation in which private financial institutions and public agencies share responsibility to protect industrial safety for SMEs," adding, "We will further strengthen policy support and cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies so that industrial accident prevention policies can be tangibly felt at worksites."
Seokjin Kang, Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, said, "This agreement is significant in that it moves away from one-time subsidy models and establishes a new cooperation model to help SMEs expand industrial accident prevention and ESG-based safety management," and added, "On the basis of this agreement, we will create an environment where local SMEs can practice accident-prevention-oriented safety management and actively link related policy projects to support the sustainable growth of SMEs."
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