[Exclusive] Ministry pressured APEC sponsors

[Anchor]

The key issue in the controversy over whether this is a voluntary sponsorship or not is the potential violation of the law.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups used a 'trick' to make it appear as if companies were voluntarily sponsoring.

They also made a so-called 'abusive' proposal to give high scores in evaluations of large companies.

Our exclusive report continues with reporter Park Kyung-jun.

[Report]

This is the sponsorship application form for APEC 2025 KOREA obtained by KBS.

It states that companies submit sponsorship proposals to provide goods.

While it seems like a voluntary sponsorship request from the companies, this proposal form was written by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The companies were instructed to fill in the blanks and send it back; why was this done?

Article 11 of the public official code of conduct.

It prohibits soliciting requests for sponsorship or sponsorship arrangements.

The Special Act on Support for Gyeongju APEC also specifies that donations must be 'voluntary.'

Although verbal sponsorship requests were made in advance, the companies were asked to submit documents as if they were applying, and this was intended to formalize a business agreement.

A Ministry of SMEs and Startups official acknowledged that they first requested companies to consider sponsorship.

There are also other potential legal violations.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission stipulates that sponsorship contracts must be transparent and that there must be a 'compensation' corresponding to the content and scope of the sponsorship.

What was the 'compensation' provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups?

In addition to listing sponsoring companies on their website and allowing the use of the official sponsor emblem, they also suggested preferential treatment in the shared growth index, which could be seen as 'abusive.'

[Ha Seung-soo/Director of the Public Interest Law Center Nongbon: "It can essentially be seen as coercion or pressure, so demanding sponsorships that companies aren't obligated to provide is far from creating a business-friendly environment..."]

A Ministry of SMEs and Startups official explained the compensation by saying, “We believed the companies would gain promotional effects worth hundreds of thousands to millions of won.”

However, companies have responded negatively, saying, "It is difficult to expect promotional effects from a government event," and "The business agreement is merely a formality, and it is essentially extortion."

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is the main government body responsible for formulating laws and policies regulating large corporations, including the Act on Fair Transactions in Subcontracting and the Act on the Promotion of Mutually Beneficial Cooperation.

This is Park Kyung-jun from KBS News.