Sofia Tech Park JSC had won a project in the field of internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is funded by the Government of the Republic Korea from its Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP). The project is on the topic: Collaboration for Internationalization of Bulgarian and Korean SMEs. The project has started with official meetings which took place on 23 and 24 July 2018 at Sofia Tech Park.
The conference was launched by experts from Korean scientific institutions: Dr. Sungchul Chung – President of the Korean Development Institute and also one of the leading figures in Korea’s scientific community on issues of internationalization of SMEs, Dr. Kwang Eol Sul – Project Manager and Mrs. Jiyu Ha – Project Coordinator from Korean Development Institute (KDI).
The Korean delegation visited Sofia Tech Park and held working meetings with the Executive director of STP – Todor Mladenov, Teodor Sedlarski – Member of the Supervisory Board of Sofia Tech Park JSC and Natail Stefanov – Member of the Executive Board of STP. Korean experts had workshop and discussed the main objectives of the project with representatives of the Ministry of Economy, attended by Nikola Stoyanov – adviser of the Deputy Minister Alexander Manolev, Kalin Marinov, Deputy Chief Directorate of the European Funds for Competitiveness, Boryana Mincheva – Director of Department for Internationalization of SMEs of BSMEPA, Irena Nikolova – Head of Policy Department for SMEs of Ministry of Economy.
During the discussion had been highlighted the main activities which will benefit the internationalization of SMEs, those are: implementing innovation, input strategic policies at national level for development and improving the production capacity at a global network, as well as the provision of financing for SMEs, etc. The experts defined the concept of internationalization and the productivity of the start-ups by reaching larger markets through training programs, workshops, digitalization, cluster development and funding.
The main aim of the project is to analyze the policies and strategies for internationalization of SMEs, the government tools and the measures to be used to develop these processes.
The final report of the project will be officially published and submitted by the Korean Development Institute in collaboration with Sofia Tech Park in April 2019. Within the project, Bulgarian experts will visit Republic of Korea and on the spot they will learn about good practices by Korean institutions.