▶ PPS Administrator Chungwoo Kim(the second from the left) is putting forth his opinions on measures to support ventures including the woman-owned at the meeting in celebration of the fifth year of Venture Nara

○ In celebration of the fifth anniversary of *Venture Nara, the meeting served as a venue for sharing achievements made so far and listening to hardships facing those small businesses

* Venture Nara is PPS’s online shopping mall established in Oct. 2016, exclusive for ventures and startups technologically innovative but struggling to join the established public procurement market. The platform lowers entry barriers to public procurement for those innovative small enterprises

□ CEOs of venture companies talked about expanded sales channels through Venture Nara and asked PPS to further increase public purchase of inventive products and services from startups and ventures.

○ More specifically, those CEOs requested for △increase in the threshold for negotiated contracts, △enhancing preference for women-owned companies in designation of Excellent Product, etc.

□ Venture Nara started with 284 products from 104 companies in 2016. As of Sept. 2021, the platform has 12,133 products from 1,793 businesses.

○ The aggregate volume of orders has soared over 300 times from KRW 200 million in 2016 to KRW 67.4 billion as of September, 2021, proving that Venture Nara has been playing an undeniable role in expanding sales channels for startups and venture companies.

□ The PPS Administrator stressed “Over the past five years, Venture Nara has served both as an entry channel to the public procurement market and as a growth ladder for those budding businesses,” adding “PPS will endeavor to ensure that inventive goods and services from the startups and ventures can readily reach Venture Nara and then march further into KONEPS Online Shopping Mall and overseas markets.