• K-GLOBAL SILICON
  VALLEY 2016 DRAWS
  LARGE CROWDS
•    The 5th K-GLOBAL Silicon Valley was held from Nov. 2-3 under the theme ‘4th Industrial Revolution’. It drew a total of 1,500 participants from companies and start-ups from the virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous vehicle industries.
     This year’s event was co-organized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA)’s Silicon Valley office, National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and the Ministry of
• Science, ICT and Future Planning (MOTIE). It consisted of 1:1 export consultations, start-up pitches, job fair and investment promotion forums. In particular, participants discussed the future direction of innovation taking place in Korean companies.
     Officials from Seoul Metropolitan City and Jeju City also participated in the event to showcase their VR and autonomous driving technology. In addition, a total of 20 companies held job interviews with prospective employees.

• KOTRA HOLDS KOREA
  CONSUMER GOODS
  SHOWCASE 2016
•    On Nov. 9-10, MOTIE and KOTRA held the Korea Consumer Goods Showcase 2016 in the city of Ilsan with the aim of expanding exports of Korean consumer products.
     Co-organized by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, the event featured a 1:1 business meeting pavilion in conjunction with Korea’s largest premium consumer goods exhibition, Design Korea 2016. A total of 100 distributers from 13 countries and 450 Korean design compa-
• nies participated in the event.
     Doo Young Kim, Executive Vice President of Strategic Marketing at KOTRA, said, “It is critical to leverage Korea’s strengths such as design and consumer goods into key export items in the future. We will not only focus on exporting more consumer goods to major markets, but also on increasing the overall exports of Korean consumption goods by location-specific marketing strategies."

• KOTRA HOSTS GLOBAL
  HALAL MARKET FORUM
•    On Nov.17, KOTRA hosted the Global Halal Market Forum in Seoul. The forum aimed to analyze the current status of the global halal market and to suggest effective market entrance strategies for Korean companies.
     A total of 200 Korean companies attended the forum, reaffirming their keen interest in the fast-growing halal market.
     The forum also took a closer look at Malaysia and Indonesia’s halal certification system. The world’s representative
• 
  halal certification institutes, Malaysia’s JAKIM and Indonesia’s MUI, explained in details the policies and procedures of the certification system.

• IK HOSTS KOREAN-
  GERMAN INVESTMENT
  FORUM
•    On November 3, Invest KOREA, the national investment promotion arm of KOTRA, and the German state of Hessen co-hosted the Korean-German Investment Forum coinciding with the arrival of the investment delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of Hessen, Tarik Al- Wazir. With the support of the Korean- German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about 100 delegates from Hessen Trade and Invest, foreign-invested companies and Korean companies attended the forum.
     Located in Hessen, Germany, Frankfurt is home to the largest Korean economic community in Europe. Hessen has
• 
  become a gateway to Europe for Korean companies by providing connections to clients faster than any other region in Europe. Through this forum, practical information for Korean and foreign companies looking to enter the Korean and German market was provided and is expected to help companies plan their overseas expansion in the future.

• Trade News
  
  S. KOREA-CENTRAL
  AMERICA FTA TO TAKE
  EFFECT
•    On Nov. 16, 2016, South Korea and six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) reached an agreement on a free trade deal. The annual trade volume between these two economic blocs stands at around USD 4-5 billion. The Korea-Central America FTA is expected to rapidly spur each other’s
• economies. Each country has adopted varying degrees of tariff reduction on different sectors, citing market sensitivity as the reason. It is all the more meaningful, however, as this is the first case for the six Central American countries to conclude a free trade deal with an Asian country.

• S.KOREA-VIETNAM AEO
  MRA TO SERVE AS
  EXPORT-IMPORT FAST
  TRACK
•    South Korea and Vietnam are expected to sign a deal for the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program by the end of this year, which will boost bilateral trade by providing an exportimport fast track with simplified clearance. Under the AEO program, when an individual satisfies the security management requirements of customs (law, internal control system, and safety standards, etc.), Customs accredits the person
• as an Authorized Economic Operation and provides the individual with preferential treatment during the clearance process.
     As Vietnam is in its initial stage of adopting the program, Korea Customs Service is stepping up efforts to become the first country to strike the MRA deal with Vietnam. The two countries are expected to make a deal by the end of this year.

• S. KOREA-EAEU FTA
  NEGOTIATIONS TO
  START IN EARNEST
•    South Korea and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will expedite negotiations for a free trade agreement. As Russia, the centerpiece of the regional economic bloc, started negotiations with Korea, the FTA negotiations will no longer be pursued at a private level but at a governmental level.
     Launched in Jan. 2015, the EAEU
• comprises of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The regional bloc has a total population of 180 million. With the implementation of the FTA, both countries will significantly expand their economic territory and find new growth momentum by boosting sluggish bilateral trade and investment.

• Government & Policy
  
  SEOUL CREATES A R&D
  ‘CONTROL TOWER’
  FOR FOURTH INDUS-
  TRIAL REVOLUTION
•    Seoul Metropolitan City is planning to establish the Seoul Science and Technology Research Institute to coordinate R&D projects in the artificial intelligence, big data and IoT industries, which will become important pillars of the fourth industrial revolution. City authorities said that the institute aims to improve
• the city’s innovation-driven global competitiveness while nurturing science and technology that befit regional characteristics. The city government said that they will analyze case studies to predict how industries will change in 10 years and what impact such changes will have on local communities.

• S.KOREA-JAPAN
  CHAMBERS OF
  COMMERCE &
  INDUSTRY HOST
  SUMMIT
•    The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) hosted the 10th Korea-Japan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Summit Meeting on Nov. 8 at the Sheraton Grand Incheon Hotel. About 30 officers of the chambers of commerce of both countries, including KCCI Chairman Park Youngman and JCCI Chairman Akio Mimura, attended the event to discuss mutual assistance and
• cooperation in the newly-rising industries.
     KCCI Chairman Park said that amid the stagnant global trading market, both countries should tap into abundant growth opportunities in the emerging economies’ infrastructure market. Park also added that both countries should expand their scope of bilateral cooperation in the state-of-the-art infrastructure industry, which in turn will create new growth momentum for Korea and Japan.