SME minister vows to launch advisory body for mega-projects by end of October

Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young said Thursday that the ministry will form a consultative body with the small and medium-sized enterprise sector by the end of this month to align SMEs with the government's three major mega-projects and broader national growth strategy.

Speaking to reporters that day, Lee said the ministry plans to regularly convene a working group — tentatively called the "SME consultative body" — bringing together small businesses involved in the three mega-projects. "We plan to launch it by the end of October," she said.

Lee said the diversity and breadth of the SME sector made it essential to hear directly from businesses rather than craft policy from behind a desk. "We need to know what companies require so that we have something to bring to government meetings," she added.

Lee also said the ministry's role — and the SME sector's participation — in the government's key national growth initiatives had been expanded. After attending her first Cabinet meeting last week, she raised the point that small business considerations were underrepresented in three national growth frameworks: the three mega-projects, the seven SEED projects and the five-pole, three-special growth engine initiative, and that the Ministry of SMEs and Startups had been left out of their implementation structures.

"I mentioned that the ministry had not been included in the third meeting of the three mega-projects, which was held that day under the president's chairmanship — and the president said, 'Then start attending from today,'" Lee said.

The ministry will accordingly participate in all future meetings related to the three mega-projects.

Lee also said the president had directed that representatives of small businesses be included in those meetings alongside the chiefs of large conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

"Starting from the next meeting, one SME representative will attend depending on the agenda," Lee said, adding that the participant would be chosen based on the meeting's topic rather than fixed to a specific company.

The ministry's role was also newly reflected in the government's seven SEED projects.

Lee said a Ministry of Science and ICT document released last week named the Ministry of SMEs and Startups for the first time as a coordinating agency. "We had not been part of the implementation structure before, but our role has now been recognized," she said.

Earlier, on Sept. 4, Lee — then a minister-designate — visited the Korea Federation of SMEs and outlined plans to give small and venture businesses a more concrete role and support framework within the government's national growth strategy, noting that it had been drawn up with a focus on large conglomerates.