Running Middle East market research through the Export Voucher scheme

The Export Voucher's formal name is the Export Support Infrastructure Utilisation Programme. Middle East market research is not a category of its own: it is purchased within the “Research / general consulting” field by specifying the target country. Under the 2026 notices the government subsidy rate is 50–70%, and a company may take part in either the Ministry of SMEs and Startups programme or the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy programme, but not both.

The Export Voucher has one name but two programmes behind it. Which one you applied to changes the ceiling, the set of fields and the way applications are assessed. Without settling that first, things come apart at the settlement stage.

01. Two programmes share one portal

Both carry the formal name Export Support Infrastructure Utilisation Programme; “Export Voucher” is the common term.

Ministry of SMEs and Startups: administered by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME). The first 2026 notice is MSS Notice No. 2025-641 (15 Dec 2025).

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy: administered by KOTRA. The detailed programme name is the Industrial Global Expansion Capability Programme (“Industry Voucher”), and the 2026 notice is MOTIE Notice No. 2025-117.

Applications and spending run through a single official Export Voucher portal. The programmes themselves are separate, however, and a company cannot be selected for both. Both notices exclude companies already participating in another Export Voucher whose agreement has not ended, from applying and from being selected.

02. Ceilings and the company's own share

The MSS programme splits companies into tracks by the previous year's export value: domestic (under USD 1,000) KRW 30m; strengthened domestic (innovative SMEs within the domestic tier) KRW 45m; early exporter (USD 1,000–100,000) KRW 30m; promising exporter (USD 100,000–1m) KRW 45m; growth exporter (USD 1m–5m) KRW 70m; and strong exporter (USD 5m or more) KRW 100m. Direct and indirect export performance are recognised on the same basis.

The subsidy rate is set by revenue, not by export value: 70% below KRW 10bn, 60% from KRW 10bn to under KRW 30bn, and 50% at KRW 30bn or above. The balance is the company's contribution.

The MOTIE programme is structured differently. The Industry Voucher runs KRW 20–50m for entry, KRW 20–70m for growth and KRW 20–100m for expansion, and the emergency support voucher is KRW 150m. The subsidy rate is simpler: 70% for SMEs and 50% for mid-sized companies. There is, however, a sector requirement: the company must fall within materials, parts and equipment; green; consumer goods; or services.

03. Which field does Middle East market research fall into

There is no Middle East field and no country-specific service code. The structure is to purchase within the “Research / general consulting” field, specifying the target country.

The MOTIE notice defines this field as support for information research and general export-related consulting, excluding legal, tax and accounting services. The research items include partner, buyer and raw material supplier sourcing research and overseas market research; the consulting items include targeted marketing from buyer databases, management mentoring, and the formulation and execution of overseas export strategy.

Arranging meetings on the ground and running matchmaking events sit in a different field: “Exhibitions / events / overseas sales support” covers overseas exhibitions and buyer matchmaking sessions. The only mention tied directly to the Middle East is an example under “Overseas standards and certification”, which the notice illustrates with obtaining sanitary and halal certification.

The set of fields differs by ministry: 15 fields under MSS and 14 under MOTIE. The difference is the “tariff response package”, which exists only under MSS.

04. The company chooses its own service provider

A company holding a voucher compares and selects providers' services from the portal's online menu and signs a service contract. Each service detail page shows the provider's name, representative and contact details, the average unit price and price range, the contracting method, the delivery period, target countries, target industries, a satisfaction score and the number of completed engagements. In other words, not only price but track record and satisfaction can be compared.

Settlement is capped, however: it is made only within the standard unit price for each service published by the lead provider for that field. Providers are recruited on a rolling basis and new selections are announced every other month. In 2026 they were announced on 27 February, 30 April, 30 June and 1 September.

For reference, the “overseas private network” is not a field in the Export Voucher menu but a type of delivery network used in the Overseas Branch Office programme. KOSME states that it operates 124 private networks across 32 countries as of 2026.

05. What holds up settlement

Settlement is where voucher programmes most often run into trouble. Confining this to what the notices state expressly:

Costs that cannot be settled: indirect expenses (such as the purchase of consumable supplies) and VAT are not settled.

Field-specific provisos: for international transport, domestic freight, handling fees, costs arising in the destination country and taxes are excluded. Overseas standards and certification excludes general testing where no overseas standard exists, and interpretation and translation is limited to services whose purpose is interpretation or translation.

Deadlines: the usage period runs from 1 February to 30 November 2026, with exhibitions alone settleable for events held up to 31 December 2026. Where a request for supplementary material is not met within 10 working days, settlement is not possible.

Penalties on utilisation: MSS applies a two-year bar on participation where utilisation is below 70%, and a five-point deduction in selection for two years where it is 70% or more but below 85%. MOTIE measures the unspent balance: a two-year bar above 30%, and a five-point deduction above 15% and up to 30%.

The company's contribution: MSS treats failure to pay at least 30% of the company's contribution within one month of the agreement start date as withdrawal from the programme.

Double settlement is treated as improper receipt of funds. The MSS notice provides for recovery of the subsidy and a penalty surcharge of up to five times the amount where misconduct is found.

06. The 2026 timetable and preparing for the next round

The MSS programme took applications from 17 December 2025 to 9 January 2026 (round 1), 17 April to 6 May 2026 (round 2), and 8 to 22 July 2026 (round 3, selections announced 26 August). Under MOTIE, round 1 of the Industry Voucher and the emergency support voucher ran from 22 December 2025 to 9 January 2026, and the fourth emergency support voucher notice was issued on 8 July 2026.

As at 1 September 2026 we find no notice of a further recruitment round. Applications for this year appear in practice to have closed, though that is not officially confirmed.

If you plan to run Middle East market research on next year's voucher, now is the time to prepare. Notices usually appear in mid-December with applications closing in early January, so settling the target countries, the scope of the research and a shortlist of providers before December makes the document and on-site assessment considerably easier.

In summary

Running Middle East market research on an Export Voucher means settling three things: which ministry's programme to apply to, whether to purchase under research or under matchmaking, and which provider to contract with. Settle all three before applying and the ten months after the agreement are all working time. Leave them until after the voucher is awarded and you run into the utilisation penalty threshold.