Although the rural areas in Korea are deteriorating as a consequence of aging population and weakening competitiveness of agriculture industry, a fresh necessity of development achievable by interconnecting resources in farming and fishing areas has been raised by technologies that drive growth into high-valued industries and by rediscoveries of values, and more using the local resources.
Notwithstanding the continuous increase in the number of joint convergent businesses between farming and fishing businesses and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in recent years, the legal foundations that support such efforts are scarce. The fact that the support from The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is focused on farmers and agricultural businesses, while the support from the Small and Medium Business Administration is centered on general manufacturing businesses has created blind spots neglecting convergence-type SMEs.
The purpose of this study is to propose legal grounds that induce the expansion of convergent businesses while supporting cooperations between farming and fishing industries and SMEs, along with preparing for organic partnership plans by analyzing the related policies of the central government in order to execute the promotion strategies for SMEs converged with agriculture, industry, and commerce.
A convergence-type SME refers to a company that generates high-added value by convergence of raw materials--farming and fishing products--into technologies covering foods, processing, IT, BT, NT, CT, etc. in direct collaborations between agricultural and fishery business people and the owners of SMEs.
The composition of this report is as follows: Chapter 2 explains the magnitude of SMEs converged with agriculture, industry, and commerce as well as the related policies; Chapter 3 introduces the cases of convergence throughout agriculture, industry, and commerce; Chapter 4 analyzes the partnerships between agriculture, industry, and commerce in Japan as well as the 6th industrial laws; Chapter 6 proposes a legislation plan for promoting cooperations between farming and fishing industries and SMEs.
In particular, with a review of the partnerships between agriculture, industry, and commerce in Japan and of some support methods and cases, the feasibility of their applications in Korea and of cooperations between the agencies in the central government was analyzed.
For determining the basic direction of supporting the growth of SMEs converged with agriculture, industry, and commerce, a step-by-step approach that extends the range of support across convergence activities of agriculture, industry, and commerce in the future is necessary after starting from supporting management bodies (companies) using the complimentary measures provided by related laws.


Researchers: Yong-Lyoul Kim and Joo-Nyung Heo
Research period: 2010. 11. ~ 2011. 1.
E-mail address: kimyl@krei.re.kr