Program provides technology help

Small businesses in need of assistance in recruiting foreign technology experts can get help from the Small Business Corp., a government-funded group designed to promote small and medium-sized businesses.
With fast-developing technologies, demand for high-tech experts for small companies has increased, but since smaller companies have lower operating margins, hiring experts is not an easy. That is why the SBC has been supporting the program since 2001.
Seder Co., which specializes in text character recognition software development, invited two engineers from India through the SBC program and is currently No. 1 in its field.
Companies are given grants depending on the length of the engineer’s stay.
The corporation is intending to bring technological experts from Japan, the United States, Russia, India and Europe.
Since the launch of the program, the SBC has brought 1,123 engineers from abroad.
“Almost half of the small companies we asked said they were having problems hiring research and development personnel.
“The demand for our service is expected to grow,” said Gu Jae-ho, director at the Small Business Corp.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]