[DigitalToday reporter Ji-young Lee (이지영)] KB Financial Group, together with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, has wrapped up the first phase of a programme to help small businesses prevent industrial accidents and will begin recruiting companies for a second phase.

KB Financial said on Wednesday it will additionally recruit supplier companies to take part in the second phase of the Industrial Safety Infrastructure Support Project for SMEs, run with the agency to help create safe working environments.

The programme was designed to provide tailored safety solutions to SMEs that struggle to build industrial safety infrastructure due to cost burdens and a lack of safety management staff, and to identify supplier companies with relevant technologies and systems. KB Financial will fully fund the total project budget of 7 billion won.

The programme will operate under a "results-linked" social contribution model that connects on-site improvements to follow-up support. After the first phase ends, it will evaluate each supplier's safety activities and on-site improvement results, continue second-phase support for top performers and exclude companies with insufficient results from follow-up support.

KB Financial and the agency will additionally recruit 17 supplier companies to participate in the second phase to identify new industrial safety technologies and solutions. Selected companies will be given opportunities to apply their technologies and products at SME industrial sites, while companies that need safety infrastructure will be connected with solutions suited to their sites.

A KB Financial official said, "Together with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, we will help reduce blind spots in safety at SME workplaces and contribute to creating an environment where workers can work with peace of mind."