Korean, Japanese SMEs agree to boost exchanges

[Photo by The Korea Federation of SMEs]

The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) and the National Federation of Small Business Associations in Japan have agreed to expand exchanges between the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) of both countries, KBIZ said on Sunday.

The agreement was made during a meeting that took place on Friday at the KBIZ headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

The Japanese delegation led by the association’s chairman Hiroshi Mori was in response to KBIZ’s visit to its counterpart in Japan in October 2023.

Both organizations expressed an understanding of the importance of economic cooperation between South Korea and Japan and discussed various measures to enhance private-sector exchanges.

In particular, they agreed to expand exchanges between SME associations by sharing common policies and issues faced by SMEs in both countries, including cooperative negotiation systems and business succession schemes.

Before the meeting, the Japanese delegation visited Home & Shopping established to support SMEs to assess the competitiveness of excellent SME products and acknowledged the need for support for these enterprises.

KBIZ Chairman Kim Ki-moon emphasized the complementary strengths of Korea in information and communication technology (ICT) and Japan in core technologies such as materials, components, and equipment.

He said that active mutual exchanges are necessary to achieve tangible results between SMEs in both countries and called for concrete exchanges and the dissemination of outcomes through a memorandum of understanding.

Chairman Mori expressed his pleasure at visiting Korea to discuss detailed cooperation since October last year.

He emphasized the need for frequent meetings between the two organizations representing SMEs in Korea and Japan to establish directions for cooperation that are beneficial to each other and strive to achieve results together.