World Class 300
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) and the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) said on June 30 that they have jointly selected 30 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) eligible for support in accordance with the “2015 World Class 300 & Global Businesses Nurturing Project.”
Following the “Korean Hidden Champion Nurturing Policy” announced last Oct., the “World Class 300” project and the “Global Businesses Nurturing Project,” which had been separately administered by the MOTIE and the SMBA respectively, have been unified. The two government agencies made the first co-selection of high potential businesses to be supported this year.
The selected businesses are: EAGON Industrial Co., Kyung-In Synthetic Corporation, Nepes, Daeyang Electric Co., DK-loc, MegaGen Implant Co., Vatech, Boryung Pharmaceutical Company, Meta Biomed, Segos, SSangYong Materials, Cell Biotech, NUC, Youngwoo Co., Ltd., Autogen, UNO & COMPANY, Wonic QnC, Unitech, Yushin Precision Industrial, EO Techniques, NK, Zinitix, KC Corporation, KTE, TeleChips, Paru, Hanla IMS, Haesung Optics, and Fine Inc.
The group of the selected companies this year consists of 11 mid-sized businesses and 19 SMEs. They have achieved an annual average of US$106.4 billion in sales and an average of US$59 million in exports with its proportion of average 56.4 percent of the total sales. Their average intensity of research and development was 4.17 percent. Among them, 14 companies (47 percent) are located in the Seoul metropolitan area such as Seoul City, Gyunggi Province and Inchoen City, while 16 companies (53 percent) are located in non-metropolitan area. None of the businesses were from Gangwon Province or Jeju Island.
The 30 companies will be supported for 10 years, starting this year, to grow to world class hidden champions.
Cho Jong-rae, director general of the High Potential Enterprises Bureau at the SMBA, said that he will maximize the synergy effects by preventing duplicated support and enhancing the effectiveness of the project once the companies have been selected first this year.