KOTRA enhances digital go-between role to promote trade, global foray

[Photo by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency]

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) has strengthened digital go-between role for Korean small and medium-sized companies at a time it is refrained from arranging global roadshows and exhibition tours under the ongoing pandemic environment.

KOTRA on Wednesday hosted an online forum to back SMEs in global foray through digitalization with a goal to promote annual export value of $700 billion and increase the number of exporters to over 120,000.

KOTRA paid participation fees and handled registration process on behalf of Korean SMEs for the online marketing webinar held by global marketing firm ECRM held in April. ECRM hosts virtual meetings on its ECRM Connect platform each year connecting buyers and sellers of more than 115 consumer goods.

This year, the number of businesses that applied for the webinar surpassed 100,000, up 20 percent from last year, as more companies sought online channels to seek business partners amid the pandemic. Local companies backed by KOTRA are currently in talks with 32 distributors in the U.S. on export deals worth a combined $10 million.

Kwangcheon Woori Laver, a local company producing seasoned laver which participated in the webinar, signed an annual supply contract worth $1 million with a market chain that has a sales network across the United States.

In line with the government¡¯s Digital New Deal initiative, KOTRA aims to back local companies in making inroads into countries like China, the U.S., Europe and India, which already have advanced digital ecosystem in place.

China is already one step ahead of Korea in its digitalization push to cope with aging and shrinking labor force. KOTRA believes that Korean companies will be able to enter the Chinese market leveraging its interest in Korea¡¯s robotics and digital healthcare technologies.

In the U.S., global retailers like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Costco are leading digital transformation. According to KOTRA, the online B2C market in the U.S. is worth $860 billion, expanding 44 percent on year and B2B e-commerce transactions volume amount to $7 trillion. Some predict that about 17 percent of all B2B transactions will take place in the form of e-commerce by 2023.

KOTRA will hold its own webinar to help local chip, automobile and bio companies respond to the reorganization of global value chain until Jul. 2. It is also developing a trade investment big data platform to accelerate its push for digitalization of its export support systems.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]