Korea organizes trade event to achieve $700 bn exports

[Photo by Yonhap]

The South Korean government has organized a two-day trade event with a goal of achieving

$700 billion in annual exports this year.

The Export Boom-up Korea event, which kicked off on Monday, has been organized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy to facilitate exports for the first half of this year.

The event has been jointly hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

Over 560 global leading buyers are visiting Seoul for the event, the trade ministry said, including the Danish offshore wind power company Ørsted A/S, the Japanese Mitsubishi Motors Corp., and the U.S. Costco Wholesale Corp.

Around 3,000 promising domestic export companies in various export-heavy fields such as services, information and communication technology (ICT), and consumer goods are participating in the event, with an estimated over 7,000 export consultations to be conducted.

The trade ministry estimates that around 150 export contracts and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) worth around $160 million will be signed through these consultations.

Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun and Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-ju will attend the event with their pledges to strengthen inter-ministerial cooperation to support export-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and middle-market companies during the event.

“The government will carry out an all-out effort for exports, including the largest-ever trade finance of 360 trillion won ($260 billion) and an export marketing budget of 1 trillion won, to achieve the record-high $700 billion in exports this year,” said Trade Minister Ahn.

Oh also vowed to form a cooperative body in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the trade ministry to support the global expansion of SMEs and middle-market companies in various fields.

Various consulting programs have been set up for the event, including one that provides one-stop consulting on export orders and one that supports overseas certification.

For major buyers, a separate on-site visit program to directly observe the product production process will be available.