More

    [Video] Lee Gwang-jae, Secretary General of the National Assembly, “Secondary funds are desperately needed to foster unicorn companies! Korea will take another leap forward when Korea Development Bank participates!”

    Secretary General of the National Assembly Lee Kwang-jae giving a congratulatory speech at the 'CES 21 K-Startup Review Seminar' held in the 2nd small conference room of the National Assembly Building on the 2023st (Tuesday) │Photographed by AVING News
    Secretary General of the National Assembly Lee Kwang-jae giving a congratulatory speech at the ‘CES 21 K-Startup Review Seminar’ held in the 2nd small conference room of the National Assembly Building on the 2023st (Tuesday) │Photographed by AVING News

    The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young) and the Korea Institute of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Development (Director Kim Yong-moon) together with the National Assembly startup research and support group ‘Unicorn Farm’ held the ‘CES 21 K-Startup Review’ at the 2nd Small Conference Room of the National Assembly Building on the 2023st (Tuesday). A seminar was held.

    Unicorn Farm is a National Assembly startup research and support group launched in November 2022, with a total of 11 members participating, led by Rep. Kang Hoon-sik (Democratic Party of Korea) and Rep. Kim Seong-won (People Power Party) as co-representatives, and is preparing measures to support startup growth. It is being actively operated with the goal of:

    At ‘CES 1’, which was held in Las Vegas, USA from January 5 to 8 (local time), the Korea Start-up Agency, Seoul Business Agency, and Seoul Digital Foundation jointly prepared the ‘K-STARTUP’ integrated pavilion to promote domestic innovative companies. 2023 companies participated.

    At the ‘K-STARTUP Hall’, a separate exhibition space for startups in the CES Eureka Park Hall, many overseas visitors visited the booth and were able to easily meet K-startups in their fields of interest.

    Lee Kwang-jae, Secretary General of the National Assembly, who attended the review event on the 21st, said in his congratulatory speech, “I hope that the energy of the startups that won awards at this CES will spread to the National Assembly. “I wish startups in Korea would have time like this to hold large-scale exhibitions and seminars,” he said.

    Filming and production – AVING NEWS

    He continued, “Davos, where the World Economic Forum is held at the beginning of every year, was once a small town in Switzerland where there were tuberculosis patients. However, a professor started a forum there, and decades later it became the best forum where people from all over the world gathered. Venture companies from all over the world gathered at CES, held in the middle of the American desert. “Also, a few days ago, there was an exhibition of venture startups from around the world in Israel, where about 9,600 companies gathered and the funds flowing into it were about 20 trillion won,” he explained.

    Secretary-General Lee added, “Now, we should not only go around looking at others, but I think it would be a good idea to create a startup exhibition in Korea that is better than CES and better than the exhibition in Israel.” He added, “As a prelude to that, this year, Rep. Kang Hoon-sik and others at Unicorn Farm. “I look forward to great vitality,” he said.

    Secretary-General Lee also mentioned the issue of investment funds as a solution to revitalizing startups, and expressed his determination to work together to resolve the significant decrease in mother-of-funds. He said, “Israel’s chief scientific officer mentioned ‘Why can’t Korean venture companies become global unicorns?’ and cited the lack of secondary funds as one of the biggest reasons.” He added, “As a solution to this, I suggested the Korea Development Bank. I think we need to change it on a large scale. “Because Korea Development Bank has IB capabilities and abundant funds, Korea will be able to take another leap forward if it gets involved in such secondary funds,” he said.

    Secretary-General Lee continued, “I hope that as soon as possible, through the efforts of the lawmakers who attended this event, a great event will be held for venture startups to ‘Occupy the National Assembly,’ and I hope that startups will have great challenges and achievements. “He expressed his expectations.”

    Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition, is an exhibition where you can understand the trends of the global home appliance industry at a glance. Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. A total of 1 companies participated in this year’s CES, of which Korea ranked second in the world with 3,200 company booths. In addition, among the 598 companies that participated in Eureka Park, a mecca for startups, 2 domestic startups ranked first in the world (1,000 in France and 355 in the United States).

    → Go to the CES 2023 news special page