South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups will be setting up the first Southeast Asia Korea Startup Centre with the help of Enterprise Singapore (ESG). 

The full-fledged facility will offer networking opportunities, offices to work out of and experiment on startups and offer services and advice to entrepreneurs on how to start up a business, how to scale it up, how to become a sustainable business, etc. 

As a part of the already vibrant and robust startup ecosystem in Singapore, the South Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will get the chance to leverage the existing infrastructure and set up their businesses in the Singapore startup and innovation ecosystem. 

“Singapore is one of our most important partners, which also could be a gateway for South Korea SMEs and startups to advance into the ASEAN market,” said Rho Yong Seok, Director-General of the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups. 

The ESG and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards have created a memorandum of understanding that focuses on promoting knowledge exchanges especially in the sphere of smart cities and smart manufacturing ideas. 

“Such cooperation will pave the way for more business and technology partnerships between Singapore and South Korea enterprises as they grow and scale their businesses globally,” said Tan Soon Kim, ESG’s Assistant CEO. 

Key takeaway:

In light of the recent expansion of air services agreement between Singapore and South Korea, there seems to be an increasing push towards improving connectivity between the two nations and promoting bilateral tourism and trade. Thus, business owners, service providers, and entrepreneurs from both countries can look towards leveraging each others’ expertise, in the landscape of work and talent. The range of long-lasting impact of such partnerships remains to be seen.