KOTRA kicks off on-site business visits to boost exports

KOTRA President & CEO Yu Jeoung-yeol

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) has embarked on on-site visits as 2024 begins, aiming to facilitate export processes by engaging closely with businesses to identify and address their challenges.

According to sources on Tuesday, KOTRA President & CEO Yu Jeoung-yeol embarked on a three-day nationwide visit on January 8th, 2024. Yu’s goal for the trip is to find effective support companies that have raised issues from the frontlines, sustaining the country’s upward trajectory of exports in 2024.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, there has been a continuous growth in exports since October 2023. On the first day of Yu’s trip, the agency held meetings in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in collaboration with Gyeonggi Techno Park, engaging with medical equipment, chemical materials companies, and aircraft parts manufacturers.

The agency visited HMM in Busan the next day to explore ways to enhance logistics convenience for domestic companies. KOTRA is actively addressing urgent issues such as obstacles in the Suez and Panama canals by running an emergency response team and the agency plans to derive more effective support measures via the site visits.

Meetings in Ulsan with companies engaged in key export items such as secondary batteries, automotive parts, and ship-related exports are scheduled for the last day of the trip. These discussions aim to listen to the status and voices from local businesses and the following visit to Cheonan will focus on companies dealing with supply chain issues.

Yu also mentioned plans to expand on-site visits domestically and internationally in 2024.