• KOTRA AND CJ E&M
  CREATE NEW
  MOMENTUM
  FOR SME GROWTH
•    In a bid to help Korean SMEs enter the global market, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held a large-scale export consultation on the occasion of CJ E&M’s 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) on December 2.
     The event took place to converge the capacity of SMEs with CJ E&M’s cultural prowess and large overseas network. Most notably, it offered a new shift in cooperation which
• enables local SMEs to work with large conglomerates more intimately. At the event, USD 6.68 million worth of contracts were signed.
     “By holding this event on the back of MAMA, we hope to create new momentum for our domestic SMEs, especially those seeking to enter the Chinese and Southeast Asian market,” said Doo Young Kim, Executive Vice President of Strategic Marketing at KOTRA.

• KOREAN SMES
  SHOWCASE
  GOODS AT KOREAN
  EXPO IN INDIA
•    On Dec. 19, MOTIE and KOTRA held ‘Korean Expo 2016 in Mumbai’ to expand economic cooperation with India, one of the world’s fastest emerging markets. During the two-day event, Korean SMEs showcased a variety of premium products, including household goods, beauty and fashion products, electronic items and machine equipment. Approximately 600 international buyers from India, Egypt, Russia and Uzbekistan attended the event to network with Korea’s most promising SMEs.
     KOTRA also showcased Korea’s high- quality goods at its Premium Pavilion
• 
  to promote the excellence of ‘Made in Korea’ products. Participants had the chance to get a glimpse of the country’s vibrant art and cultural scene at the pavilion, as companies displayed products that combined art with function.

• KOREA’S HI-TECH SMES
  AND VENTURE
  CAPITALS FORGE NEW
  NETWORKS
•    To provide opportunities for Korea’s promising hi-tech companies in the North American market, KOTRA and Seoul Business Agency (SBA) provided an investor relations event from Dec.6 to 9 in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, California.
     In attendance were 10 Korean companies from the fields of gaming, autonomous vehicles, clean energy and augmented reality. These businesses had the opportunity to pitch their products to some of the world’s largest venture capitals and investment companies, including
• Google, Rubicon Venture Capital, Altos Ventures and Oracle.
     A forum outlining investment attraction strategies also took place on the sidelines of the event, with Venrock’s Steve Goldberg and NewGen Capital’s Homan Yuen presenting on the current status of the investment landscape in Silicon Valley.

• KOTRA WORKS TO
  BOLSTER KOREA-JAPAN
  RELATIONS AT
  BUSINESS FORUM
•    On Dec. 2, the ‘Next Generation Korea-Japan Cooperation Business Forum’ took place in Tokyo, Japan to strengthen Korea-Japan economic cooperation and spur investment in both countries. The forum was comprised of sessions on Japan and Korea’s promising sectors for investment. In the case of Korea, advanced materials, bio-pharmaceuticals and ICT were some of the country’s fastest emerging industries.
     Along with the Embassy of Korea in Japan, KOTRA also held a seminar on
• strengthening people-to-people exchange. Human resource professionals from 100 Japanese companies attended the seminar to learn about how they can expand their business by hiring Korean workers.
     Jaehong Kim, President of KOTRA, stated, “We’ll continue to provide opportunities like this so that both Japan and Korea’s economy will advance one step further in the future”