The South Korean government will establish incubation program for services providers with the aim of grooming 100 companies active on the external front by 2022 to address the ever-widening deficit in international services balance.

According to mid- to long-term outline released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Thursday, the government will establish a trade promotion program currently available mostly for manufacturers separately for services enterprises.

It will seek out and foster export-oriented services providers from the birth stage and assist them in business model designs, quality improvement, and market inroads backed by a budget of 100 billion won, doubling from this year’s similar spending of 50 billion won ($46.5 milllion).

It will launch a start-up incubating system next year by linking global companies engaged in venture investment and programs such as Amazon Web Services and Japan’s KDDI with promising exporters in the service industry.

The state will provide up to 30 million won for trial services foray into overseas markets as well as 30 million won credit limit to companies in contents, software, and other promising services sector in their offshore venture.

Korea’s service account deficit widened to a fresh record high of $3.53 billion in October.

By Seok Min-soo and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]