Paving the Road to Public Procurement for Youth Companies and Startups

The preliminary designation program on Venture Nara will commence on July 1, 2022

□ PPS(Administrator Lee Jong-wook) announced it would serve as a stepping stone for youth companies, startups and ventures so that they could readily join public procurement with their inventive products through the preliminary designation program on Venture Nara. The designation program is scheduled to be launched in July, 2022

○ Venture Nara, an online shopping mall launched by PPS in October, 2016, has assisted young SMEs struggling to find early sales channels in entering public procurement markets

○ The preliminary designation regime allows youth companies, startups and ventures (within three years after establishment) qualified for minimum standards to readily register their quality products in Venture Nara

- And those registered products can be purchased on the online platform from six month before officially designated as the Innovative Product, which makes it possible for user entities in the public sector to use them in advance.

□After the preliminary designation, PPS is to support fledgling but inventive businesses with tailored-consultations so that they could join broader markets including the KONEPS Online Shopping Mall through official designation of their goods as the Innovative Product

□ The director-general for Innovation Procurement of PPS said. “Preliminary designation simplifies entry procedures to public procurement for youth companies and startups, so it is likely that more of their novel products will go to public procurement markets, adding ”PPS will continue to remove unnecessary regulations to buttress their growth“