95 companies exhibit achievements at the Smart Biz Expo

For companies, it is a problem when supply fails to keep up with demand and vice versa.

Visitors browse booths at Smart Biz Expo on Tuesday at Coex in southern Seoul. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

For companies, it is a problem when supply fails to keep up with demand and vice versa.

To resolve the former issue when faced by small-and-mid-sized companies, Samsung Electronics and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups started a program in 2016 to help them improve manufacturing capabilities.

Samsung donated 60 billion won ($42 million) and the ministry 50 billion won. A trade show for participating companies began on Tuesday.

A total of 95 companies in machinery, food, medicine and materials introduced their products at the show, the Smart Biz Expo, where they met with potential buyers.

The tech company has supported over 2,000 small-and-medium companies so far, and many of them have no business ties with Samsung Electronics, according to the company.

One of the participants is a ginseng manufacturer named Agricultural Chunyeon Red Ginseng.

A representative of the company at the booth said that its sales increased ten times this year compared to last year after adopting a ginseng processing technique developed by Samsung Electronics.

About 200 engineers are dedicated to the program full-time.

Many corporate social programs go unnoticed by the public, but this joint program became widely known during the coronavirus pandemic as the company dispatched engineers to manufacturing sites facing a spike in demand in the wake of the pandemic.

The major beneficiaries include facial mask makers and developers of Covid-19 diagnostics products.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]