S. Korea, Italy sign cooperative MOU to boost SME ties

South Korea and Italy have agreed to link business projects between their small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives and to share market information.

South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced Friday that it held a Korea-Italy Cooperative MOU signing ceremony and seminar in Rome.

The event was organized as a follow-up initiative stemming from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's visit to South Korea in January, during which the two countries emphasized the need for cooperation between their SMEs and cooperatives.

Italy is widely regarded as a leading SME powerhouse, with small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for a significant share of the country's gross domestic product. The Emilia-Romagna region in particular has drawn attention as a case where cooperatives and SMEs work in close partnership, achieving manufacturing competitiveness and regional economic vitality at the same time.

The government expects the partnership to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic cooperatives while also helping South Korean SMEs secure local networks as they seek to enter European markets.

At the event, the Korea Federation of SMEs signed separate MOUs with Italy's Confartigianato and the cooperative federation Legacoop, agreeing to pursue business linkages between SMEs and cooperatives in the two countries, exchanges of cooperative-related policy and information, and market information sharing.

Confartigianato is Italy's leading economic organization for SMEs, representing approximately 116,000 manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises. Legacoop is a national cooperative federation with more than 10,000 member cooperatives and over 7 million individual members, making it Italy's foremost cooperative organization.

A seminar followed the signing ceremony, during which participants from both countries discussed growth models and support systems for SMEs and cooperatives.

"This event is significant not merely as an exchange but as a starting point for a new partnership through which Korean and Italian cooperatives can grow together," said Noh Yong-seok, first vice minister of SMEs and Startups. "We will continue to expand support so that SMEs and cooperatives can create new opportunities in the global market."