중소기업관련법과 정책의 개선

SMEs make up large portion of the national economy in Korea. Their number,employment capacity and value added constitute a large share of the Koreaneconomy. However, SMEs are struggling to perform their role as a major economicplayer and regarded as deterrents when it comes to considering a balanceddevelopment of the national economy due to their relatively weak position comparedto large enterprises in considering their available funds, human resources,technologies, marketing channels, and bargaining power etc. Notwithstanding the governmental policies and laws introduced since 1980 withthe aim of protecting, supporting, and promoting SMEs, the position and role ofSMEs have not been improved substantially in our national economy. There are two primary reasons for the SME’s current problems in the Koreannational economy. Firstly, the implementation of SMEs related laws and policieshave not been fully effective. Another reason for their unsatisfactory outcome is areflection of the underlying economic structure of Korea favoring large business,preventing the SME related laws and policies to operate properly. Thus, an overallpolicy and legislative reform is called for in order that both SMEs and large businessesoperate as viable economic entities contributing to the sustainable growthand well-balanced development of the national economy. In order to mitigate or eliminate the SMEs’ relative weakness in the economyand to promote the healthy growth and competitiveness of SMEs, it is necessaryto rectify the SME related laws and the established unfair practices by large businesses and to enhance the effectiveness of the functional aspects of the SME relatedlaws. Moreover, a long term strategic approach to this problem would be tocreate a favorable business environment for SMEs in which both large businessesand SMEs can compete more fairly on their merits and cooperate more closely inthe market. In the light of the current large business oriented economic structure, however,there is a call for the de-concentration of economic power by large conglomeratesas well as the reform of the long-standing monopolistic or oligopolistic marketstructures for certain industries for the purpose of transforming our economy intothe more pluralistic economic structure. Accordingly, making such a transformationis outside the scope of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration’s (SMEA)competence that should be taken up seriously at a national level. For that reason,the future SME policy should not just be left in the hands of the SMEA and/orthe Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, both of which primarily focus on protectingand supporting SMEs as a weaker economic entity. The SMEs related lawsand policies should be considered as a part of the long-term national strategyaimed at establishing the economic structure suitable for the sustainable growth andwell-balanced development.