SME Ministry Holds Startup Forum at Sungkyunkwan University; K-Beauty Vietnam Push and More

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said April 24 it held a roundtable at Sungkyunkwan University’s Natural Sciences Campus with student startup clubs, students interested in entrepreneurship and alumni founders.

Participants shared startup ideas and discussed difficulties in preparing to launch businesses, along with areas they said need improvement. The ministry also heard views on campus startup-support programs, ways to link them with the “Startup for Everyone” initiative, and policy support needed in the early stages.

First Vice Minister Noh Yong-seok said he hopes young people will use “Startup for Everyone” to become more comfortable with entrepreneurship and to develop their ideas. “The government will be a reliable helper so that young people’s creative ideas can lead to real startups,” he said. The ministry and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency said they held a business matchmaking event April 24 (local time) at the Lotte Hotel Hanoi to support K-beauty companies entering Vietnam.

The event paired Korean K-beauty small and midsize companies with local buyers for one-on-one export talks on site, and was designed to support market entry based on advance research into distribution channels.

Fifteen K-beauty SMEs with strong potential for local expansion took part. Vietnamese beauty buyers visited booths to review products and technology and hold in-depth discussions.

Park Jang-hyeok, KOSME’s director for global growth, said the program goes beyond consultations by linking companies to distribution placement and follow-up support. He said KOSME will continue expanding on-the-ground assistance for entry into promising overseas markets. Public Home Shopping said April 24 it received a Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry minister’s commendation for a second straight year after being named the top institution in the “2025 Easy and Correct Public Language” evaluation at the “2026 Joint Training Session for Korean-Language Officers and Language-Culture Centers.”

In a news release, the company said it ranked first among 331 public institutions for avoiding difficult words, Chinese characters and foreign scripts.

Public Home Shopping said it was selected as one of 24 outstanding institutions in the 2023 evaluation, then was named a top public-language institution in 2024 and 2025.

A company official said it has worked to use proper Korean in the distribution industry, where loanwords are common, and pledged continued efforts to communicate with consumers in easy, comfortable language. KD Navien said April 24 it installed its dehumidifying ventilation air purifier — with dehumidification, ventilation and air-cleaning functions — at 20 “smart shelter” bus stops in Seoul’s Jung-gu district, including stops near Samsung Main Building and the Sogong-dong community service center.

Smart shelters are public waiting areas designed to help people wait for public transportation during heat waves, cold snaps and fine-dust conditions. They offer smart services such as heating and cooling, air purification and Wi-Fi.

KD Navien said its unit uses a “dual dehumidification solution” to maintain a relative humidity of 40% to 60% and, unlike air conditioners or dehumidifiers, manages humidity efficiently without changing temperature. The company said it is also seen as helping reduce heating and cooling energy use.

A company official said a humid summer heat is expected this year, and the device’s impact in green smart shelters is likely to be greater.



* This article has been translated by AI.

Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.