• INVESTOR RELATIONS
  EVENT HELD IN UAE TO
  SPUR COOPERATION
•    From Feb. 6 to 9, KOTRA, along with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), public organizations and small and middle businesses hoping to attract foreign investment held an investor relations event titled ‘Toward a New Industrial Era with Korea’ in the United Arab Emirates, the largest foreign investment country in the Middle East.
      The UAE investor relations event was held to expand investment opportunities by
• providing information on investing in Korea, individual consultation services on investment projects and consultation services for sovereign wealth funds.
      Considering the rapid industrial shuffle taking place in the Middle East, the event focused on attracting investment by introducing financial investors with targeted information on the main regional development projects in Korea, as well as projects related to the fourth industrial revolution.

• KOTRA PROMOTES
  KOREA’S HIGH-QUALITY
  CONSUMER GOODS IN
  CHINA
•    From February 14 to 16, MOTIE, KOTRA and Taobao, China’s largest ecommerce platform, jointly hosted ‘Taobao Consumer Goods Pitching & Demo Day’ for the first time ever. A wide range of promising consumer goods were showcased via live stream in Korea and China.
      KOTRA promoted Korea’s promising consumer goods such as cosmetics, daily
• supplies and baby products as well as agricultural and fisheries products. Featuring internet celebrity Wang Hong, the program aired in both countries through a B2B broadcasting channel.
      The event was held in relation to the ‘2017 Global Retail Market Entry Showcase’ which will be held on March 30 and convene experts in the global retail and e-commerce market.

• KOTRA HOLDS
  KNOWLEDGE SHARING
  SEMINAR REGARDING
  INVESTMENTS IN CUBA
•    On Feb. 13, the Knowledge Sharing Seminar for Investing in Cuba was held at the KOTRA headquarters in Seoul. Around 80 companies interested in entering the Cuban market attended the event, which was hosted by Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and organized by KOTRA. 10 officials led by Rosell Guerra Campana, Director of Renewable Energy at the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines, also attended the event.
      In an effort to lower their foreign dependency on fossil fuels and raise renewable energy usage levels to 24 percent by 2030, the
• Cuban government has launched a knowledge sharing program (KSP) last October with their Korean counterpart to benchmark Korea’s experience in adopting renewable energy. The Cuban government expressed particular interest in Korea’s energy storage system (ESS) technology, use of marine energy, municipal solid waste (MSW) management and electric buses. Through the program, the Korean government shared its experience in the renewable energy sector, discussed ways to work together in each industry and offered policy advice on financing.

• BUSINESSES SEEK
  ADVICE AT 2017 UN
  PROCUREMENT PLAZA
•    From Feb. 21-22, KOTRA held the 2017 UN Procurement Plaza at The Westin Chosun Seoul. Some 300 business persons from Korea and abroad participated at the event introducing the United Nation’s procurement system, vendor registration procedures and market entry strategies by industry. Participants received one-one-one customized consultations from procurement officers.
      With simpler vendor registration procedures introduced in 2013, enabling online vendor registration and submission of proposals, the
• UN procurement market has become more accessible to Korean small and medium businesses. Through the event, KOTRA has provided the businesses with an opportunity to review ongoing tenders, and seek advice on how to participate in the bidding process.
      Procurement officers from the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) stressed that Korean businesses need to focus more on the Asian region, which accounts for one third of the entire UN procurement market.