South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is accepting applications until next month 26 for its 2026 “DNA large-small partnership joint expansion” programme to accelerate global market entry for AI and digital convergence services using ICT such as data, networks and artificial intelligence (DNA).

The programme, launched in 2021, aims for small and medium-sized companies with ICT innovative technologies to form consortia with companies that have global networks and business capabilities, and to demonstrate and commercialise digital convergence services overseas and link them to sales and export results.

Through last year's programme, South Korean companies posted overseas sales of about $3.6 million in major markets including North America, Southeast Asia and Japan, and achieved 26 demonstrations and identified 378 new customer prospects.

Participating companies said they were able to open negotiations with local customers that would have been difficult for small firms to access on their own by using large companies' global infrastructure. They also said receiving a package of support covering costs from marketing to localisation was a big help in laying the groundwork for early market entry.

The ministry will select 4 projects this year. The selected consortia will receive package support covering the entire process of overseas expansion, including service localisation, full-scale overseas demonstrations, identifying local customers and building networks, and company-wide global marketing.

To expand corporate networking opportunities, the ministry will also provide business matching opportunities by supporting exhibition booth operations and participation in investment consultations in conjunction with the World IT Show, the country's largest ICT exhibition. It brought forward the call schedule by about 1 month from last year and expanded the project implementation period to give companies enough time to prepare.

Park Tae-wan (박태완), director general for ICT Industry Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stressed that it would spare no effort to provide end-to-end support centred on local demonstrations so that South Korean companies can verify technologies and services in overseas markets and link them to tangible results through the programme.