#61 Small and Medium-Sized Businesses and Innovation

[스티븐스 대사]

In January, I helped kick off the Korean Importers' Association (KOIMA) CEO Academy, a series of discussions focused on current business topics.  KOIMA is one of Korea’s most prominent trade organizations.  KOIMA’s invitation to me to speak at the inaugural breakfast was a chance for me to have an in-depth discussion with the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are such an important sector of the Korean economy, and that play such a vital role in the U.S.-Korea economic relationship.  KOIMA represents over 10,000 companies, most of which are SMEs.  Together they account for more than 80 percent of the imports to Korea from all areas of the world.  This was a group I was eager to get to know better.

Cake cutting at the opening ceremony of the KOIMA CEO Academy on January 13, 2010.
(Photo provided by KOIMA)

But when the organizers asked me to give a speech in Korean, I hesitated.  The thought of giving a speech in Korean about the economy – and at breakfast – gave me pause.  But I could not have asked for a more welcoming and engaged audience; the KOIMA members listened patiently through my speech, and responded with excellent questions and comments in the discussion that followed. 

I confirmed what most of the audience already knew: The Republic of Korea is the eighth largest market for U.S. products and services in the world, and 30 percent of U.S. exports to Korea are in the high-tech area.  I was also eager to share with the audience an example of Korean and American SMEs working together on innovative technologies I had recently learned about.  It was a U.S.-Korean SME partnership, with help from the Korean Ministry of Environment and the U.S. government, that was instrumental in the conversion of some 11,000 Seoul City bus diesel engines to clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG).  Those diesel buses used to represent just 4 percent of the total number of vehicles operating in Seoul, but had accounted for nearly 50 percent of total vehicle emissions.  Today, the air quality in Seoul is greatly improved and you can see the CNG insignia on buses across the city.  It is this kind of Korean-American partnership of our most creative and entrepreneurial SMEs that will make real our vision of sustainable green growth, with job creation.

You can read the text of my speech on our website at:

ENG: http://seoul.usembassy.gov/113_011310.html

KOR: http://korean.seoul.usembassy.gov/113_011310.html

With the KOIMA discussion about the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises to both our countries in mind, I went just a few weeks later to Gyeonggi Province, where I had a chance to see several examples of the cutting-edge work that SMEs are doing.   

Joel Mumberger, Director of the Gyeonggi Province – University of Texas Center for Innovation, Creativity and Capital in Suwon, explains the mission of the Center.

In 2008, Gyeonggi Province and the University of Texas established the Gyeonggi Province – University of Texas (UT) Institute for Innovation, Creativity and Capital in Suwon.  Governor Kim Moon-soo, who hosted my visit, is a strong supporter of this program, which helps Korean individuals and enterprises commercialize their new technologies.   These innovators often do not have the funds or global market experience to take their “ideas” to market.   At the Innovation Center, experts from UT assist these entrepreneurs by analyzing the market potential for the new products and, if a particular product seems strong enough, link the Korean entrepreneurs with interested companies in the United States.  The American companies can purchase the product for resale or incorporate it into a larger U.S. finished product.  

During my visit to the center I met three entrepreneurs who were eager to market their new ideas for “green” products.  I was especially pleased that two of these three high-tech entrepreneurs were women.  One of the entrepreneurs I met has developed a solar tracking mechanism along with an accompanying honeycomb pedestal for use in solar industry.  Another has designed a new braking technology for automobiles.  Yet another has developed a new method for recycling and reprocessing asphalt for use in road construction.  The Innovation Center is convinced that these ideas have great potential for the U.S. market.

The Gyeonggi Province – University of Texas Innovation Center is finding new synergies every day between Korean and American SMEs.  Both of our countries benefit from the cross-training and cross-fertilization of ideas when Korean entrepreneurs and innovators come together with their American counterparts.   

Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo was a gracious host in Suwon.

I also enjoyed meeting with Suwon Vice Mayor Yeh Chang-geun at the Hwaseong Fortress.