World's Top 10 Exhibition Powerhouse Nations

A master plan for the development of exhibition industries

The government has set its sights on fostering Korea into the ranks of the global top 10 exhibition industry powerhouse nations, commensurate with Korea's standing as the world's 11th largest economy.
Lee Jae-hoon, vice minister of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), told the New Year meeting of exhibition industry personnel at COEX on Jan. 9, "Korea's key industries, including automobiles, have a competitive edge on the global market, but the exhibition industries, which back up the exporting industries, has been overlooked, and the exhibition industries need to be given the opportunity to make a leap forward in accordance with the capacity of Korea's exporting industries." The vice minister said the year 2008 marked the launch of the development of exhibition industries as Korea laid an institutional foundation by taking such steps as the legislation of the Act on the Development of Exhibition Industries that took effect on Sept. 22, 2008.
Kim Jong-ho, director of the Trade Promotion Division at the MKE, said, "The government and people in the exhibition industries and related industries will join forces in order to realize the goal of raising the standing of the Korean exhibition industry to be among the global top 10 powerhouse nations."
Approximately 130 people attended the gathering including MKE Vice Minister Lee; Chung Jae-hoon, director general for trade at the MKE; Bae Byung-kwan, president and CEO of COEX and concurrently chairman of the Association of Korean Exhibition Industries (AKEI); Kim Soo-ik, president and CEO of BEXCO; Lim Ui-soo, president and CEO of the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center; Kim Jae-hyo, president and CEO of EXCO; and Huh Jung-ok, president and CEO of the International Convention Center Jeju and Choe Dae-kyu, AKEI vice chairman.
During the meeting, AKEI unveiled its symbol and the slogan "Today's Fair, Tomorrow's Success," designed to publicize the Korean exhibition industries.
In accordance with the Act on the Development of Exhibition Industries, the government has established a master plan for the industries' development, which took effect Jan. 1, 2009. The five-year exhibition industry development plan stipulates the vision of Korean exhibition industries: advancing Korea into the global top 10 exhibition industry powerhouse nations by 2012 through the continuous expansion of exhibition infrastructure, the advancement of Korean exhibition industries and the strengthening of trade show organizers' competitiveness.
It set goals: raising the exhibition industries' proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) from 0.17 percent in 2007 to 0.35 percent in 2012, the number of jobs created from 16,000 in 2007 to 35,000 in 2012 and the value of production from 1.4 trillion won in 2007 to 2.9 trillion won in 2012. During the five-year development plan, the size of KINTEX, BEXCO and EXCO will each be nearly doubled with a combined increase of 90,000 sq. meters of indoor exhibition space to a total of 264,654 sq. meters.
The government plans to foster one or two exhibitions into world-class ones representing Korea by making exhibitions specialized and bigger. To this end, the ceiling of incentives for combining the existing exhibitions in Korea will be raised from the current 100 million won. Also, trade show organizers will be encouraged to register their intellectual property rights in order to prevent overlapping or duplicating trade shows. So far, five exhibitions, including IT Korea and the WiBro Exhibition, have been held simultaneously. It will implement the "5 plus 2 Strategy" designed to develop trade shows suitable to the industrial foundations of each region in order to revitalize the local economy. It will ramp up the competitiveness of Korean exhibition industries, build up infrastructure for fostering exhibition industries, solve the complaints and grievances that exhibition industries experience and revamp supporting systems. nw

Those in the Korea exhibition industries resolve to ramp up their presence in the global exhibition market at the New Year's gathering at COEX on Jan. 9.