Korean Hidden Champions

The Korean government launched the Hidden Champion Project for this year on January 4, which consists of the World Class 300 & Global Industry Leader Project and the Global Hidden Champion Project.
The Korean government launched the Hidden Champion Project for this year on January 4, which consists of the World Class 300 & Global Industry Leader Project and the Global Hidden Champion Project.

 

The Small & Medium Business Administration and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced the launching of their Hidden Champion Project for this year on January 4. The project is divided into the World Class 300 & Global Industry Leader Project and the Global Hidden Champion Project.

The government’s idea is to help promising small firms turn themselves into hidden champions by closely linking the subprojects to each other. To this end, the government is going to create a pool of innovative and promising candidates and select some of them through growth strategy consulting and the like.

A total of 70 companies are slated to be selected in the World Class 300 Project. Those that recorded 40 billion won to one trillion won in sales in 2015 and those whose sales for 2016 are estimated to be within that range can file for application. In addition, the candidates have to satisfy certain requirements with regard to export ratio, R&D investment ratio and export volume. Those selected are allowed to participate in global R&D and marketing projects in which up to 1.5 billion won is provided a year for two to five years and up to 75 million won is provided a year for up to five years, respectively.

In the meantime, 120 companies are scheduled to be picked out in the Global Hidden Champion Project. The sales requirement is 10 billion won to 100 billion won. Those selected can be provided with assistance for four years in terms of R&D, global marketing, intellectual property management and so on. Up to 300 million won is given a year for two years in R&D cost and up to 100 million won is offered per year for four years in overseas marketing cost

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