Invest KOREA

An emergency meeting that convened all executives of the headquarters and heads of KOTRA overseas offices across the world
Measures to make a breakthrough in export, including large-scale projects, tailored support measures, upgraded follow-up supports, and utilization of real-time transaction data

KOTRA (President Yu Jeoung Yeol) is poised to embark on numerous projects in the latter half of 2023 to achieve tangible outcomes that will result in a significant export growth much earlier than planned. KOTRA will be fully devoted to increasing export sales, with an array of strong and customized supports, such as hosting large-scale export negotiation meetings attended by 2,600 companies and visiting SMEs one by one to help them overcome obstacles they face.

Although Korea's trade balance last month finally turned around for the first time in 16 months with the smallest decrease in export this year, there are still uncertainties, derived from delayed recovery in advanced economies, surrounding domestic exporters. Which led KOTRA to urgently brought together all executive members in the headquarters and heads of KOTRA overseas offices to come up with new projects to maximize the export sales for the second fiscal semester in line with economic policies put forward by the Korean government.

During the discussion, 4 major project ideas were suggested to boost export in the 3rd and 4th quarters this year: (large-scale projects) hosting large-scale flagship events and providing intensive supports to promising exporters; (expansion & resumption) providing customized supports to top 100 SEM exporters to tackle obstacles they suffer from and to those who stopped exporting and just started exporting business to help them expand their presence; (followup actions) intensifying follow-up actions, based on critical inquires and survey data on domestic exporters collected during the first half of this year; (Regional & Sectoral opportunities) utilizing up-to-date data on overseas markets and identifying new export opportunities by region and sector.

【Large-scale projects】 Hosting large-scale export negotiation meetings, such as Korea Trade Boom-Up Showcase 2023 attended by 2,600 companies (2,000 domestic exports and 6,000 foreign buyers), to ensure the national export outlook becomes bullish.

【Expansion & resumption】 Creating a new project tilted "Export Volume Up" where headquarter managers, general managers, and department managers at KOTRA meat with top 100 SEM exporters in person to tackle obstacles that they are up against.

【Followup actions】 Of 3,000 inquires gathered during the first 6 months this year, selecting 100 with high possibilities to clinch a deal, and giving them a wider range of supports along with KOTRA export specialists and 35 members of KOTRA's task force team, formed in March 2023 to facilitate business matching.

【Regional & sectoral export opportunities】 Creating a new support project, titled 'Bespoke Data Project' where KOTRA identifies potential importers by using data on real-time transaction (i.e. a bill of landing) and digital marketing and provides the buyer list to 230 Korea exporters while giving them tailored marketing supports.

Meanwhile, KOTRA will remain committed to attracting FDI in domestic industries of cutting-edge technology by hosting Invest Korea Summit, the nation's largest event for FDI promotion attended by 300 foreign investors, in November in order to increase foreign investment and assist Korean firms reshoring their business.

"After all the difficulties we navigated, I believe, the second half of this year will be a critical turning point that we should muster up all our strength in order to record the best export sales ever." KOTRA President Yu Jeoung Yeol said. "KOTRA will faithfully fulfill its duties in implementing the major projects later this year with wholehearted supports to deliver our export-expansion commitment as soon as possible."



Source: Invest KOREA (Jul. 11, 2023)