South Korea Imposes Fines To Protect SMEs

On Jan. 21, South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced a 'win-win growth' strategy that imposes fines up to 50 billion won for technology theft and expands financing, tax incentives and export support for SMEs and startups. The plan allocates about 1.7 trillion won in mutual-growth financing, subsidizes GPU access at 5–10% market fees, and aims to establish 100 collaborative AI factories by 2030.