On July 7, Minister of Environment Han Wha-jin signed an agreement with the Korea Federation of SMEs (K-Biz) on voluntary environmental management and ESG of the SMEs. During the signing ceremony, the Minister said, "We will listen to companies' voices and examine them more carefully so that small and medium-sized companies would not face any difficulties in implementing ESG." The Ministry of Environment will apply the integrated environmental safety management system to the member companies of plating on a trial basis. The Ministry also agreed to cooperate with the K-Biz to extend the system to other sectors.