SMEs minister pledges tailored support for smaller firms in Korea's megaprojects

South Korea's SMEs ministry said Wednesday that it will set up a council to connect small and venture companies with the large anchor firms behind the country's three flagship industrial projects, as the government seeks to spread the gains of the program beyond big business.

Lee So-young, the minister of SMEs and startups, chaired a meeting at the Korea Evaluation Data auditorium in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Wednesday afternoon with about 20 participants, including nine small, venture and startup companies working in semiconductors, AI data centers and physical AI. The meeting was arranged to hear from the small-business sector amid a push to build a virtuous cycle that spreads the megaprojects' growth gains to small companies and regional economies.

The three megaprojects are a state-led industrial and infrastructure push built around those three axes, with more than 1,500 trillion won ($1,130 billion) in planned investment aimed at building an AI industrial ecosystem and creating new growth engines.

Companies already supplying the large firms that announced major investment plans attended, as did firms trying to break into those supply chains for the first time. They discussed ways to use the megaprojects as opportunities for growth, the role they want the government to play and the cooperation they hope for with large and mid-sized companies.

"The megaprojects are a national growth strategy that will be responsible for the next 20 to 30 years, so the role and participation of small and medium-sized enterprises are important in spreading the results across the industrial ecosystem," Lee said.

She said the difficulties facing existing suppliers and would-be entrants differ, and that the government would design support measures accordingly. Lee also said the ministry would work to ensure the entire process, from entering a supply chain through placing orders, production and payment, is conducted fairly, and that it would build the groundwork to promote "growth together."

The ministry said it has begun forming a consultative council to identify which small companies want to take part in the projects, link them with large and mid-sized anchor companies, and explore cooperation measures. Lee said the ministry would continue to act as a connector between small businesses, large and mid-sized companies, and central and local governments through such councils, and that it would keep pursuing ways to spread the megaprojects' gains to small companies.

The meeting included the heads of the Venture Business Association, the Innobiz Association and the MainBiz Association, as well as the chairman of the Korea Startup Forum.