There is something called a'non-face-to-face voucher platform'.

This site is operated by the Ministry of Small and Medium Venture Business.

(▶ 4 million won for a 20-person video conferencing? "If it's my money, I don't buy it") Due to the corona crisis, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) considered that they needed non-face-to-face work, and made it to support remote working environments.

The Small and Medium Business Administration selects'supplying companies' that can provide services in six areas, including video conferencing, telecommuting, and caring, and connects them with small and medium-sized businesses (demand companies) that need them.



When using the services of suppliers on the platform, demand companies receive 4 million won each from the government, including 10% self-pay.

The government's goal is to build a non-face-to-face business environment worth 4 million won in tax for 160,000 SMEs, each of 80,000 this year and next year.

For the first time in the third supplementary administration, a budget of 111 billion won was established, and the budget for next year, which is currently being submitted to the National Assembly, is also 285 billion won.

Mid-term Minister Park Young-sun called this a K-non-face-to-face voucher and said, "I will do my best to establish myself in the market."



● A lot of products worth 4 million won aimed at the government budget…



I opened the platform homepage and looked at the contents of the

back transaction proposal

.

The price is just 4 million won, as if many of the software and services with different technologies and contents were promised.

There are suspicions that even cheaper services were offered up to the limits of government subsidies.

The price of a video conferencing solution that allows only 10 people to connect simultaneously is 4 million.

Small and medium-sized businesses responded by saying, "It's absurd to be a world where you can access 100 people for free just by zooming, the world's #1 video conferencing app."

A representative of a venture company specializing in performance planning, who applied for the voucher, said that he is using ZOOM as a paid account and evaluated that "I never pay my money" for the video conferencing solutions in the platform.



As the government is saying, "We'll pay for it, just use these" signs of wasting taxes are already showing up.

This is predicted because companies that actually need non-face-to-face work do not find and trade the technology they need in the market.

Below is a proposal from a supply company by a demand company.


To all of you who are running a small and medium-sized business (both corporate and private business) who are tired of coronavirus, we would like to first inform you with a small gift.


Currently, the government is supporting the "non-face-to-face service available voucher (up to 4 million won/self-paying 10%)" as a project supported by the Ministry of SMEs to promote digitalization of SMEs and foster non-face-to-face fields.


Then, you may have doubts whether you are saying to pay 400,000 won to something you don't know what it is, but in reality, if you deposit 400,000 won, which is necessary for signing up, we

are refunding 800,000 won as a marketing promotion fund.


In the attached file, the contact information of ○○○ Co., Ltd., where you can inquire about related matters, and the contact information of the representative, etc. are indicated, and if you have any questions, you can check it with me or ○○○ Co., Ltd.


For processing, you can apply according to the procedure on pages 5-6 of the attached file, and we will deposit 800,000 won within 3 days after confirmation of registration.


If they buy a service they sell for 4 million won for 400,000 won, they will give 800,000 won in cash in return.

I openly proposed a back deal.

Anyway, it's Narat money, so it's like spending it and seeing it.

The mid-term bankruptcy was not unexpected, and we recently sent a'warning notice' to companies.

But despite these mid-term warnings, there are still vendors who are looking for tax.

A representative of a supply company even hinted at providing in-kind to a reporter who called as if it were a demand company, saying, "You can write down what you need (in the application form)."



● As if the government encouraged the “rental pursuit”…

"I don't know about the field of SMEs" The



phenomenon that occurs on the non-face-to-face voucher platform of the mid-term and mid-term and economics is called the'rent-seeking act' in economics.

It is the act of economic actors not creating new wealth in a productive manner, but rather taking advantage of the government's financial business and taking care of others' wealth.

Seong Tae-yoon, a professor of economics at Yonsei University, who served as a director of the Finance Association said, "Amidst economic difficulties, financial expansion is necessary. We need a close check on the validity.”

It is time to look back on whether the government has promoted rent-seeking activities that are of no use to the economy.



There is another problem.

It is that many small and medium-sized venture companies in the field do not feel that they need'non-face-to-face work'.

A start-up CEO met with a reporter, saying that non-face-to-face work is "it's the environment we have to go to someday, but it's not right now."

From a startup standpoint, it is a large company with only 10 employees.

The office density itself is not high, and "Responding to market changes quickly is the key to survival of a startup, and it is more important to make decisions face-to-face with employees every day."

In fact, as a result of a survey of 300 domestic companies by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it was found that 70.8% of the companies said that they "have no plan at all" to continue or introduce remote work even after the coronavirus.



For this reason, the non-face-to-face voucher platform business of the Mid-term and Mid-term Ministry has been turned away from SMEs from the beginning.

As of September 9th, only 4,201 companies applied as demand companies.

We aimed at 80,000 companies, but only 5.3%.

The mid-term was embarrassed.

It is natural that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participation in projects that have already been budgeted for this year and reflected in the next year's budget have been low.

After encouraging membership through various small and medium-sized business associations and organizations, it became hot to see a press release earlier this month saying, "The number of companies in demand that applied for the voucher service exceeded 40,000".



● Today's National Assembly budget review…

The



National Assembly Budget Office of the National Assembly also'blowed' this project through the analysis of the next year's budget.

This was because the project worth 300 billion won did not go through a preliminary feasibility study, and it seemed that the project was not effective.

“We need to adjust the size of the business and budget through an adequacy review immediately.”

The National Assembly Budget and Accounting Special Committee is also scheduled to hold a budget adjustment subcommittee today to review the budget.

As it is the blood tax of the people, thorough monitoring by the opposition parties and rational budget adjustment are necessary.