Korea restructures SME support

Korea is restructuring the way it supports small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to focus on firms that are promising in technology, states JoonAng Daily.

“The policy on supporting SMEs has been more about distributing available resources without evaluation or requiring specific qualifications. It has been unable to separate the good from the bad,” says knowledge and economy minister, Choi Kyung-hwan.

The government will amend relevant laws and submit a bill to parliament, reviewing and revising tax and financial benefits for SMEs.

Malaysia is to start using the New Economic Model (NEM) which focuses on SMEs, writes Bernama.

International trade and industry minister, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, says: "The New Economic Model is aimed at raising the people's income to make Malaysia a developed country."

Mustapa says entrepreneurs need to increase productivity, adopt technology and upgrade skills as the government aims to double the per capita income of Malaysians.

SMEs looking to invest in the latest renewable heat technologies are being given a helping hand by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) as part of the £4.3 million (R47 million) Grant for Improving Your Resource Efficiency, reports the NWDA.

Introduced last year and supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the grant provides an enhanced level of investment to SMEs to enable particular projects that will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and generate wider environmental benefits in the region.

Grant support of 50% is available for SMEs to invest in renewable heat technologies, including ground source heat, air solar thermal, combined heat and power and biomass (renewable heat).