The Jeju Techno Park (Jeju TP) Bio Convergence Center, which is participating in a local small and medium-sized business support project under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘Legend 50+’, is helping food and bio companies in the province develop health functional food formulations and produce prototypes. Photo Jeju Techno Park
Ains, a small business that opened in 2017, is a food specialty company that manufactures sunshik and ready-to-eat products made from Jeju agricultural products. The company, which has focused on domestic sales through e-commerce and home shopping broadcasting, is turning its attention to overseas sales channels with exports to Singapore in 2020. Last month, we participated in the world’s largest food fair ‘Sial Paris 2024’, opening the door to collaboration with local French chefs. This is thanks to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province’s intensive support for food and beauty companies under the Legend 50+ project of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
Lee Jin-young, CEO of AINS, said, “This year, we were able to go to overseas expos thanks to receiving support for marketing costs through Legend 50+. We were able to effectively promote our products by connecting us with experienced marketing companies during the promotion process.”
Regional specialized project ‘Legend 50+’
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ three-year small business development project ‘Legend 50+’ is achieving meaningful results. This is thanks to each local government taking the lead in selecting companies to support based on industries that fit the characteristics of the region. Currently, the Legend 50+ project is supporting a total of 1,350 companies, focusing on business projects on 21 topics selected by 17 cities and provinces. Each regional techno park and local small and medium-sized venture business office prepare a project that reflects regional characteristics and select a suitable company, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups gathers and supports existing policy measures.
Designer Younghee Kim
This year, the first year of implementation, 278 billion won was supported in six areas, including policy funds, smart factories, export and innovation vouchers, startup-oriented universities, and local specialized industry development. In the meantime, companies have applied for support according to the requirements whenever a relevant project announcement is made, but companies selected as Legend 50+ can easily receive support through a simplified process. Companies selected this year will receive benefits until 2026. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to invest 1.1 trillion won over three years with local governments and regional innovation organizations to carry out the project.
Customized training by local government
Local governments are highly satisfied. In the case of Daejeon City, which chose the defense industry as its theme, 63 related small and medium-sized enterprises were selected to participate in the project to develop and domestically produce core parts for the defense industry. It is explained that as a result of carrying out a defense industry research and development (R&D) project with a budget of 5.5 billion won, the desired results are being achieved in the development stage of radar technology, autonomous unmanned system parts, and advanced materials.
Ho-jong Jang, Vice Mayor of Economics and Science of Daejeon City, said, “As major defense-related organizations such as the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration are located in Daejeon, about 230 small and medium-sized businesses that support the development of advanced weapon systems and defense technology naturally grew in Daejeon.” “We are focused on nurturing these companies to revitalize the local economy and create high-skill jobs,” he said. He also said, “Because each local government best understands the region’s industrial structure and strengths, efficient resource allocation is possible,” and “In this Legend 50+ project, we were able to provide customized support for each company through close communication with local companies.” “He said.
Designer Younghee Kim
Larger amount of support, 430 billion won next year
Legend 50+ 2.0, which starts next year, focuses more on regional core industry capabilities. Excluding Seoul, 16 local governments are selecting participating companies based on topics that capitalize on the strengths of each region.
In addition to the six types of support provided by this year’s Legend 50+, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups added three types of support next year, including research manpower support, industry-academia-research collaboration, and guarantee support through the Technology Guarantee Fund. The amount of support, which was 278 billion won this year, will also expand to 430.4 billion won next year.
Kim Woo-jung, Director of Regional Enterprise Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “The Legend 50+ 2.0 project to be promoted next year has raised the threshold for participating companies. “We plan to select companies with excellent innovation and growth potential first,” he said. “We plan to provide the necessary support in the field so that the central government and local governments can work together to significantly grow small and medium-sized businesses.”
Reporter Kim Gyeong-mi [email protected]
