Minister of SMEs and Startups Kwon Chil-seung is briefing the 20-year venture investment employment trend at the government office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 16th. Photo Small and Medium Venture Business
Minister of SMEs and Startups Kwon Chil-seung said, “First of all, it is correct to provide selective support. However, efforts and precision are needed to eliminate the blind spot.” As a solution to the blind spot, it proposed a plan to support small businesses with annual sales of more than 400 million won. Currently, the Small and Medium Business Administration provides support funds, which are subsidies, only to small business owners with annual sales of less than 400 million won.
Minister Kwon said, “(In the case of support fund), raising the limit of sales to more than 400 million is a good way to eliminate blind spots.” . He said, “We believe that people who operate multiple businesses (over 400 million annual sales) will fall.” Minister Kwon announced on the 17th the work plan of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups for 2021, incorporating policies in the fields of SMEs, ventures and small businesses.
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Minister of Strategy and Finance also recently said, “The small business owner definition means less than 1 billion won in sales, but in fact, most of them are less than 400 million won, so we provided support funds for less than 400 million won. “We are looking at ways to include additional suffering classes.” If an annual sales of up to 1 billion won is recognized, self-employed persons with an annual income of 150 million won (average operating profit margin of small business owners 15%) can also receive support.
“Active review to support annual sales of 400 million or more”
Minister Kwon said, “There are some people who ask if it is simple to use the tax and sales reported to the National Tax Service (selecting the support target), but there are quite a few people who have not reported properly. If that happens, there will be an unexpected blind spot.” This is interpreted as meaning that unregistered business owners who have not filed a report from the National Tax Service or self-employed persons who have reported reduced income can also apply.
Regarding this, an official from the Ministry of SMEs said, “It is the purpose that self-employed small business owners should be able to receive support in a thick and easy way. In addition to the data from the National Tax Service, we have to look at it in multiple ways.” However, he said, “People who are not self-employed, small business owners, should also receive it, and a representative case is unregistered business.”
In this year’s first business report, the Ministry of SMEs and Industry announced that it will promptly pay 4.1 trillion won in supporting funds to small business owners. It plans to establish 100 digital traditional markets this year, supporting online delivery services and wireless payments in traditional markets, and expand smart stores (20,000) and smart supermarkets (800).
In addition, in order to foster innovative ventures and start-ups, the company plans to promote three major boom projects: start-up boom, investment boom, and export boom. It is the content that we will discover 1,000 non-face-to-face innovative startups by 2025 and create an ecosystem that grows from “baby unicorn” to “unicorn” (K-unicorn). It also included a plan to create an additional KRW 1 trillion in Smart Korea Fund (total of 2.3 trillion KRW) and establish a new flagship store at home and abroad to export’Brand K’, a joint brand of small and medium-sized businesses.
Reporter Chu In-young [email protected]