Woori Bank said on Jan. 27 it signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics, the Korea Federation of SMEs and the Korea Technology Finance Corp to set up a cooperative financial support framework for mutual growth between large companies and small firms, aimed at supporting small and midsize companies building smart factories.

The “large company-SME shared-growth smart factory build support” project is a program in which Samsung Electronics and the Korea Federation of SMEs work together to support the introduction of customized smart factories for SMEs. The agreement was arranged to add Woori Bank’s financial support to existing smart factory adoption support programs, with large companies, finance and institutions joining forces to boost SMEs’ competitiveness and help shared growth between large and small companies.

Under the agreement, Samsung Electronics and the Korea Federation of SMEs will handle screening for financial support recipients, guidance on support items and promotion, in addition to existing support such as mentoring for manufacturing-site innovation activities and running smart factory programs.

To support SMEs building smart factories, Woori Bank will make a special contribution of 2 billion won to Kibo. Based on this, it will provide tangible financial benefits by receiving guarantee certificates from Kibo, including supplying about 110 billion won in loans, cutting guarantee fees and offering preferential loan rates.

It will also help open sales channels by buying products made by companies participating in the shared-growth smart factory build support project and using them as customer gifts.

Woori Bank CEO Jin-wan Jeong (정진완) said the agreement is part of the Woori Financial Group’s Future Shared Growth Project, being pursued at a scale of 80 trillion won to shift to productive finance and expand inclusive finance. He said he hopes it will help SMEs building smart factories accelerate digital transformation through smooth financial support and establish a stable management foundation.