South Korean government announced a plan Monday to prop up small enterprise clusters run by craft masters and help them take advantage of state-sponsored services, as well as information technologies.

By 2021, the state-affiliated Small and Medium Business Administration will name 20 SE clusters and increase the portion of sales in small enterprises to 5 percent of the entire business in Korea, from 4.1 percent as of 2016. 

The number of state-run centers dedicated to offering masters training, counseling service and facilities for three-dimensional printing and seminars, is expected to almost double from 31 to 70, as of Wednesday.

The centers will “play a role in helping SE craftsmen scattered around a city or a county consolidate,” said Lee Byung-kwon of SMBA.

Also, some 20 billion won ($17,4 million) will be injected in a bid to extend microfinance to small enterprise entities this year, 1 billion won per individual at maximum, according to the plan.

South Korea stipulates that a craftsman is a worker in a small enterprise with less than 10 employees involved in one of the 19 designated manufacturing businesses, while an SE cluster means at least 50 craftsmen in a district and 20 in a county are involved in the manufacturing mastery.

The SMBA has designated four SE clusters -- three in Seoul specializing in jewelry products, handmade shoes and metal used in machines, and one in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province specializing in printing. According to the state plan, 5 billion won will be earmarked for three SE clusters in Seoul, while 1.5 billion won will be put in the printing cluster in the city located some 110 kilometers south of Seoul.

With more SE clusters expected to arrive, the state-run industry organization will encourage the clusters to team up with the nearest clusters devoted to startups and IT firms and institutions.

The government’s plan came two years after it first introduced a bill to shore up small enterprises, triggering a sharp increase in the volume of budgets meant to support craftsmen, excluding loans, from 2.8 billion won in 2014 to 32 billion won this year. The details of the fresh plan Monday were fleshed out after the SMBA reviewed the state-led project to support SE businessmen, SMBA added.

Craftsmen make up about 25 percent of all businessmen in Korea, according to 2014 data. Some 989,000 people are estimated to be involved in 317,000 business entities, the data showed.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)