KOTRA's Diverse Support to Exporters

The firm sees competition growing tougher for exporters next year as economic recovery strengthens

President Cho Hwan-eik of the Korea Investment and Trade Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said he sees competition in the international markets heating up next year for a dominant position among big players and KOTRA must prepare its export support strategies with such a situation in mind.
During a media conference held on Dec. 2, Cho said Korean exporters should be ready for the situation in their struggles to expand exports next year.
Cho said that Korean exporters have been very lucky this year, as most exporters in advanced countries experienced setbacks due to the global economic recession. But not next year; they will come back stronger than ever with most of their restructuring completed during the economic crisis, he warned.
KOTRA’s top man said he can even say that some big players in the global export market might cooperate among themselves to undermine Korean exporters next year. KOTRA has to draw up extensive strategies in support of Korean exporters to fend off such threats in their way, he said.
Korean exporters should continue to maintain their current detailed strategies for advanced countries, while they are advised to take very offensive postures in emerging countries like China.
What KOTRA has in mind to support Korean exporters in advanced markets like the United States and Europe is to let them join with global firms in such areas as the expansion of parts supply and joint marketing and to cooperate in R&D. Cooperative areas would include automobiles, IT, green industries and biomedicine ―those in which advanced countries are strong. Korean firms are also recommended to tackle the business areas not attempted before such as large discount stores and online shopping.
In emerging market countries like China, Korean exporters should take advantage of services from the Korea Business Center to be expanded by KOTRA to help them explore China’s markets in the inland regions. The trade promotion organization will also recommend technology cooperation and joint investment with Chinese partners in such areas as the parts industry to cope with China’s attempts to move into technology-intensive industries, for example.
“We will try to draw up a map for Korea-China cooperation next year and hold forums and other events to boost such business cooperation between the two neighbors,” Cho said.
In the meantime, Lee Han-chul, head of KOTRA’s Marketing Strategy Headquarters, won the Industrial Merit Stone Tower medal in recognition of his achievement in kicking off the “Buy Korea 2009” export promotion program from Oct. 1, 2008, and other support programs to help Korean exporters find new markets for Korean products as well as helping boost Korea’s industrial competitive edge over international rivals.
He was credited with extending tailor-made support to SME exporters, which came as a result of monitoring SMEs’ export activities, and gave the list of successful SME exporters to the media to encourage others to do the same.
Under Buy Korea 2009, Lee invited 1,200 foreign buyers to Seoul earlier this year to have them buy Korean goods aimed at helping SME exporters break out of the sluggish exports environment that grew worse due to the financial crisis. The foreign buyers held talks with Korean manufacturers regarding 6,000 cases of exports valued at $370 million out of a total of $1.6 billion worth of goods negotiated for exports during their visit.
SME exporters held sales talks with foreign buyers, which they would not have been able to do otherwise. British Airways decided to buy $20 million worth of parts, while Vestas, the world’s biggest wind power plant company, also bought $20 million worth of parts from Korea at the time.
The KOTRA event helped boost the confidence of Korean exporters whose morale was very low due to the global economic downturn and get them to stand on their own feet.
Lee had a team of experts comprised of experienced export firm employees to find buyers for Korean goods in February. They connected 5,281 cases of export enquiries to exporters in the first half of the year, which resulted in over $80 million worth of goods exported, and it is likely that the exporters will be able to export $200 million worth of goods by the end of the year through the support of the export support team. nw

President Cho Hwan-eik of the Korea Investment and Trade Promotion Agency.(KOTRA)