Resources

Government organizations such as SMBA, Korea Customs Service, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, and SME-support organizations such as Korea Federation of SMEs are working closely together to implement various policies to support Korean SMEs to make proper use of FTAs.

The APEC SME Internationalization Model Indices was developed per individual economy as well as APEC as the whole thanks to the data collected through pilot studies from 5 member economies. As for analysis, the SME internationalization was examined in terms of the economy-industry-firm size aspect, the diversity-intensity relationship and the major determinants. Major research results included: 1) The larger the firm size, the higher the internationalization level of SMEs; 2) The diversity of SME internationalization is generally higher than the Intensity across all economies; and 3) Firm size, R&D, export history, openness and industry characteristics matter for SME internationalization, but readiness to market advance and government support have little or significant impact on internationalization.

In order to share the results of the project and to discuss ways to globalize SMEs in the APEC region, Korea’s Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) and Small and medium Business Corporation(SBC) hold a workshop in Seoul, Korea in October 2016 (SME 05 2016S)

APEC e-commerce forum was held from November 26 to 28, 2015 in Jeju city, Korea. The purpose of the event was to provide a place to discuss the e-commerce industry for industry experts and policy makers. This forum contributed to increasing people’s understanding about the e-commerce industry, and sharing the most up-to-date information on the e-commerce industry.

There were 1.25 million women-owned enterprises in Korea, 38.8% of the entire population. To promote these SMEs, Korea passed an Act on Women Enterprise Support, which stipulated that public organizations should purchase at least 5% of goods and services and 3% of construction services from women-led SMEs.

The online export support project for SMEs provided e-trade services to SMEs that had difficulty with overseas promotion and market expansion. At the moment, the project was in the one-stop support stage, in which there were four steps, namely: education, infrastructure build-up, marketing, and transactional arrangement/after-sale service. Korea has successfully conducted its one-stop support project through GobizKorea, e-Trade channel, BMS/VAP, and B2C agency sale..

The study by Korea aimed to find out if PSU's model of the study ""SME Internationalization and Measurement" fit to Korean SMEs, what problems could arise in the course of measurement and data collection, and if there were any lessons to be considered for Korea's project. The study targeted 100 exporting/importing Korean SMEs in three industries such as electronics (including IT), automobiles/parts, and textile/apparel.