Korean Products Displayed in Poland

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy, KOTRA sponsor an exhibition of Korean products timed with President Lee's visit to Warsaw

The Exhibition for Top World-class Korean Goods took place July 7-10 at the Warsaw Culture and Science Palace in Warsaw, Poland, hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, officials of the MKE said recently.
A total of 55 Korean firms displayed such goods at the exhibition as IT, electric, electronics, machinery, equipment, medical equipment, health care, daily necessities and cultural contents. The companies included Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, LS Cable and LG Electronics, the makers selected for their world-class products by the MKE and KOTRA Brand Companies. Attracting the most attention at the event was the T-50 training jet displayed by Korea Aerospace Industries to show the host country's air force the superb quality of the aircraft to be used as a trainer for its pilots, MKE officials said.
The exhibition took place on the occasion of President Lee Myung-bak's state-visit to the Eastern European country and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the diplomatic opening between Korea and Poland and also to raise the "Premium Korea" image with the display of top-class Korean goods.
The Korean goods were shown to Polish visitors of the special Premium Korea exhibition hall built by the sponsors and included such high-tech goods as IT products, top world-class products and design goods with facilities for the visitors to test hand phones and MP3 players in order to get a feel for those products directly, the officials said.
Also attracting attention was the robot display to show the production technologies of the Korean robotics industry, which has become a future growth engine, and to show how useful they would be in the areas of education, manufacturing and games, to name just a few uses, through actual demonstrations of the commercialized robots.
The event attracted some 1,000 buyers from the EU and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and was expected to result in sales talks for $100 million worth of goods at the event. The event also drew over 20,000 viewers, boosting the popularity of Korean products and Korea's image in the Eastern European region, the officials said.
Dignitaries at the opening of the exhibition included a number of Polish government officials led by Vice Minister Dariousz Bogdan of the Polish Economics Ministry, President Cho Hwan-eik of KOTRA and Amb. Lee Joon-jae to Poland, among others.
Poland, with a population of 38 million, entered the EU in 2004 and its economy has grown rapidly to the extent that its per capita GDP is $17,000, one of the promising export markets for Korean products. In fact, the Eastern European country is the fourth largest importer of Korean products in 2008 in Europe by importing $4.1 billion worth of products following, Great Britain at $5.9 billion worth, the Netherlands at $6.4 billion worth and Germany with $10.5 billion worth of goods.
The MKE, jointly with KOTRA, plan to hold exhibitions of Korean products continuously to help exports grow in this time of economic crisis sweeping the world in order to continue to support the country's economic recovery. They will hold those events in both strategic and newly-emerging market regions to help exporters explore new markets for their products.
They already held an event in Bangkok in February, in Beijing in June, and plan to stage events in Chicago and London in September, Qingdao, China in October and Mexico City in November.
A total of 10 Korean companies such as OKF and Silitex displayed their consumer and daily necessities goods; eight companies including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and LS Cable put on show their IT, electric and electronic products; 17 companies joined together to display their machinery, equipment and parts; 11 companies displayed their medical equipment and healthcare products; six companies including NHN, NCsoft and KBS put their game, animation and broadcasting products on display; and Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors exhibited their latest models of cars at an outdoor exhibition space.
In the evening, KOTRA President Cho hosted a dinner for buyers from all over Europe at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Warsaw and showed a public relations film on Korea and Korean products. nw

A scene form the Exhibition of Top-class Korean commodities held July 7-10 at the Warsaw Culture and Science Palace in Warsaw, Poland, on the occasion of President Lee Myung-bak's state visit to the East European country. At the display are Minister Lee Youn-ho of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and President Cho Hwan-eik of KOTRA, which sponsored the event jointly with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.