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Korean SMEs

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    Status of Korean SMEs

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    Trend of Business Start-ups

    (Unit : No. of Firms, As of 2023)

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    Trend of Business Start-ups - '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16
    '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16
    Acquisition of New Corporations 65,110 74,162 75,574 84,697 93,768 96,155
    Manufacturing 15,557 17,733 18,721 19,509 20,155 19,037

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    Trend of Business Start-ups - '17, '18, '19
    '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23
    Acquisition of New Corporations 98,330 102,042 1,285,259 1,484,667 1,417,973 1,317,479 1,238,617
    Manufacturing 20,629 18,954 52,317 49,928 47,989 41,595 37,280

    Source : MSS

    ※ Due to the changes in the way statistics are compiled since 2019, it is difficult to simply compare to the figures before 2018.(2011~2018 : only incorporated companies, 2019~ : both incorporated companies and individual proprietorships)

    Status of Korean SMEs

    Status of Korean SMEs

    SMEs play an important role in Korean Economy. According to business statistics, SMEs take up ninety-nine percent of number of enterprises, eighty-three percent of total employment, thirty-four percent of export.

    • 99%

      No. of Enterprises

    • 81%

      Employment

    • 39.3%

      Export

    Employment by Business Size

    Small-sized Enterprises : 21% / 4.28 million, Micro-Enterprises : 43% / 8.97 million, LE & HPE : 17% / 3.49 million, Medium-sized Enterprises : 19% / 3.86 million

    Added Value by Business Size

    LE & HPE : 62.2%, SME : 37.8%

    (As of 2023)

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