Only about 1 out of every 10 small and medium-sized enterprises in the country said they are or have the potential to become globally competitive, the outcome of a survey released Wednesday showed, calling for a dramatic change in government support for small firms.

According to the survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, only 12 percent or 47 out of 393 companies surveyed said they were globally competitive in terms of both market share and their ability to adapt to changes in the global market.

Of the total, 228 firms or 58 percent said they lacked global competitiveness.

The institute said the average global competitiveness of the country’s SMEs improved from 44.2 points in 2007 to 53.4 points on its own scale of 1 to 100.

“However, the low score still suggests the conditions for our small- and medium-sized firms to become globally competitive are very poor,” it said in a press release. (Yonhap News)