KB Financial Group said on Tuesday it is recruiting supplier companies to participate in the “SME Industrial Safety Infrastructure Support Project” with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, investing a total project budget of 7 billion won to strengthen industrial safety capabilities and prevent serious accidents at small and medium-sized enterprises.

The project will be carried out as part of an “SME Industrial Safety Support” business agreement signed last year. It will identify and foster supplier companies with strong technologies and systems in industrial safety. It will also provide beneficiary companies, which need safety equipment and solutions, with free, tailored improvements to their work environments.

Supplier companies with advanced safety technologies are expected to gain opportunities to validate and expand their technologies. Beneficiary companies are expected to be able to build industrial safety infrastructure more systematically to prevent accidents.

Eligible applicants are SMEs that have technologies to prevent safety accidents such as fires, entrapment, collisions and falls, and that have commercialised related technologies or products. The notice will recruit a total of 50 supplier companies. Support will consist of initial project funding based on the supplier’s business plan (phase 1) and follow-on funding based on performance (phase 2).

KB Financial Group and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency introduced a “performance-based social contribution model” so follow-on support can be provided to suppliers based on specific results such as whether the matched beneficiary companies improved their work environments and raised safety levels. They are expected to be able to concentrate support on areas with real accident-prevention effects by setting clear targets and providing additional incentives to companies with strong achievement rates.

A KB Financial Group official said, “A safe work environment for SMEs is connected not only to corporate competitiveness but also to the sustainability of local jobs, so we prepared this project to help introduce safety technologies needed at worksites and contribute to creating a foundation where workers can work with peace of mind by also checking improvement results.” The official added, “Going forward, KB Financial Group will also work to expand sustainable growth for SMEs and spread a safety culture focused on prevention through various cooperation models that combine finance and industrial safety.”