Internationalization of Korean startups

The Korean government is discussing ways for foreign students in Korea to work for startups with their student visas.
The Korean government is discussing ways for foreign students in Korea to work for startups with their student visas.

 

The Korean government and startups in Korea decided to work together so that more foreigners can find their jobs in the Korean startups. The idea is to develop content and services that can better suit overseas market demands and sharpen the startups’ competitive edge in terms of global marketing. In the long term, this is expected to encourage foreigners to start their business in Korea from the get-go and help Korea turn itself into a global startup hub.

According to industry sources, the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and global accelerators are working on measures for the internationalization of Korean startups by referring to the examples of the Silicon Valley and Singapore, where foreigners account for more than 30% of startup employees.

To this end, the ministry launches the Global Startup Korea project by investing four billion won this year and the NIPA takes part in the project as a recruiter and internship program provider. At the same time, a job portal is to be set up for information sharing between startups in Korea and job seekers abroad while international hackathons are planned to be organized.

“Although Korean startups are showing a substantial quantitative growth these days on the back of policy support and investment, the number of super startups such as Coupang is still small,” the ministry explained, continuing, “In addition, even Coupang itself is not a global business in the strict sense of the word, and thus we need to assist in the growth of born-global startups that are capable of overcoming the limit of the narrow domestic market.” It added, “We are discussing various matters such as visa procedures with the authorities concerned so that foreign students in Korea can work for startups for a certain period of time with their student visas.”

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