The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced the results of the 2024 Women-Owned Enterprises Survey (as of 2023) on February 27.
This survey is a nationally approved statistic published annually (Article 7 of the Women's Enterprise Act) to identify the overall status of women-owned businesses, including their general status, financial performance, education, and challenges, and to serve as reference material for developing and establishing policies to support women-owned businesses.
The results of this survey show that women-owned businesses have improved in stability and productivity compared to the previous year, while profitability and activity have decreased.
Export experience and the proportion of exports to sales increased by 0.5 percentage points each year compared to the previous year, and while R&D investment experience was similar to the previous year, the average investment amount increased significantly.
The number one strength felt by female entrepreneurs was 'delicacy' (42.1%), and the number one weakness was 'challenging spirit' (38.4%). The area where female entrepreneurs are most disadvantaged compared to male entrepreneurs was 'burden of balancing work and family life' (36.6%).
Among the major support policies, the support needed for growth was ranked 1st in 'financial support' (31.7%), 2nd in 'tax support' (29.8%), 3rd in 'human resources support' (16.1%), and 4th in 'market support' (14.8%), and 'financial support' (90.8%) was also ranked highest in terms of utilization effect.
The experience rate of government agency supply through public procurement was 14.0%, and the rate of helpfulness was 77.0%.
Among the major factors affecting business activities, 'decreased demand due to overall economic downturn' (54.6% → 51.3%) decreased compared to the previous year, but 'increased costs such as labor and raw materials' (39.3% → 40.6%) and 'intensified competition among companies' (37.7% → 38.6%) increased.
Among the corporate capabilities for overseas expansion, the competency that women-owned businesses perceive as most lacking is possession of overseas certification (59.2%), and the country in which they have expanded or hope to expand overseas was most frequently selected as the 'United States'.
Kim Jeong-ju, Director of Small and Medium Business Strategy Planning, said, “In order to support the effective growth of women-owned businesses, whose contribution and importance to our economic growth are growing by the day, we will prepare the ‘Second Five-Year Basic Plan for Promoting Women-owned Business Activities’ within the year, reflecting the current status of women-owned businesses and policy demands revealed in this survey.”
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.