Invest KOREA

KOTRA offered preliminary online consultation between companies and Middle Eastern buyers participating in the WDS

KOTRA (President Yu Joung-yeol) conducted a preliminary online consultation to support on-site consultations and export contract signing of Korean companies participating in the World Defense Show (WDS), held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 4-8.

The preliminary online consultations were carried out by the Korea Defense Industry Trade Support Center (KODITS) on January 15-19. With the participation of 15 Korean small and medium-sized companies, and 24 Middle Eastern buyers, 61 consultations were conducted, resulting in export consultations worth about USD 42 million (USD 56 billion).

Meanwhile, the World Defense Show (WDS) - held for the second time this year, following 2022- is the largest defense industry exhibition in Middle East. According to the organizer of the exhibition, about 700 companies from 75 countries participated. Our major defense industry system companies took part, while 17 small and medium-sized companies also joined through the SMEs pavilion and Gyeongnam pavilion.

Kim Ho-Seong, Chief Officer of the KODITS, said, "numerous companies which participated in the preliminary online consultation were found to have conducted specific consultations with buyers on-site of the WDS," adding that "we expect the face-to-face consultations, which took place more effectively building on the preliminary online consultation, lead to actual contract signing."

KOTRA plans to continuously support exports of companies participated in the consultations, while keep supporting overseas expansion of small and medium-sized companies by linking online consultations and offline exhibitions in cooperation with local governments and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.



Source: Invest KOREA (Feb. 13, 2024)