The Korea Economic Cooperation Agency's Management Advisory Group, operated by the Korea Economic Cooperation Agency's Small and Medium Business Cooperation Center (Chairman Kim Chang-beom), will serve as a management mentor for startups and research institutes at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (President Bang Seung-chan).

On May 22, the SME Center signed a business agreement to promote ETRI startup businesses and resolve management difficulties at the FKI Tower Conference Center.

The two organizations will support the strengthening of the competitiveness of ETRI startups and research institute companies through the operation of the Korea-Economics Cooperation Management Advisory Group mentoring program and the discovery, nurturing, and investment linkage of startups.

On this day, 15 ETRI research institute startups, including Hojeon Able and Blue Tile Lab, participated in the ‘Mentoring Day’ held concurrently.

The 30-member Korea Economic Cooperation Management Advisory Group will provide six months of mentoring across all areas, including marketing, finance, and other areas, to help businesses achieve sustainable growth.

ETRI is contributing to the creation of a startup ecosystem by introducing the first pre-startup support program among participating research institutes and operating ETRI Holdings, a technology holding company. The number of research institute start-ups and research institute companies produced by ETRI is 184, the largest among research institutes in the science and technology field, and they have achieved various results, including listing on KOSDAQ and attracting investment.

Director of the SME Center, Choo Gwang-ho, said, “The commercialization and marketing experience and know-how of the Korea Economic Daily Management Advisory Group will be added to technology-oriented research institute startups and ETRI research institute companies, and we believe that we will be able to achieve many results in the future.”