Recently, I found in my inbox an email sent from a Swiss buyer who wanted to meet with Korea IT Times at today's Buy Korea. It was an instance that illustrated how big a role Buy Korea is, the top trade fair in Korea, plays in bolstering Korea's trade by providing a platform for not only the companies that are seeking to export their products, but also those who want to establish a partnership with foreign companies.
The largest trade fair in the world that invites a number of influential overseas buyers, Buy Korea starts today - January 11 and 12 - at KINTEX, Goyang. Despite rather unstable political situation, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) is determined to demonstrate Korea's global power, inviting over 1,000 foreign buyers to the event.
Global co-development
The next two days can be summed up by three keywords: Premium, Collaboration, and Win-Win. ‘Korea Premium' denotes the country's status as becoming part of the center of global economy with Shanghai Expo, G20, etc.; ‘Collaboration' refers to their effort to bring out diverse cooperation from the global community by inviting the largest number of buyers - 1152 as of now - in history; and ‘Win-Win' is one of the three main themes for Buy Korea are the two-way consulting will propel both Korean and global market towards win-win situation.
Kim Sang-cheol, the head of main industries department at KOTRA whose recent schedule is hectic preparing for today and tomorrow said, "The global market is showing incredible confidence in Korean economy in spite of recent political strain between South and North Korea. Buy Korea will prove truly global where 10 countries including the U.S and Germany will participate in the FTA-nation Pavilion and 30 global companies from Korea and elsewhere will open more than 80 booths in Global Co-development Pavilion, facilitating communication between Korea, Asia and the world."
The following is a question and answer with KOTRA's Kim Sang-cheol.
Q) How is the exhibition organized for the next two days
A) This event is focused on global co-development, and the exhibition will be held in three pavilions each named Premium (white), Collaboration (blue), and Win-Win (red).
Premium Pavilion will showcase major products that demonstrate Korea's heightened global status, including about 15 Smart Korean products, over 30 first-class products, and around 40 KOTRA-certified brand products. At over 80 booths in Collaboration Pavilion, major Korean corporations, related institutes, and global companies will exhibit products that represent global co-development, and the FTA exhibition hall will be separately prepared within the Pavilion where 10 FTA member countries will show their determination to promote FTA and shared growth on a global scale.
Win-Win Pavilion, which represents Buy Korea's role as a venue for global co-development and coexistence, invites global vendors as well as buyers to host two-way consulting for 1,152 companies. Particularly, a number of vendors who deal with the articles that are essential for Korea, such as raw and subsidiary materials, will come from Europe, China, the U.S., Taiwan, and so on, reinforcing the theme of this fair.
Q) What is the expected outcome of this year's event
A) We expect the result to match the scale of the event in terms of being the biggest in history. In our estimation, the meeting between 722 foreign companies and 2,700 Korean companies will lead to contracts worth about US$1.2 billion, to be precise. It is about twice as much as last year's amount and nearly 115 percent of our goal, and the consulting will encompass all the industries including plant, one of the key industries of Korea, parts, and IT.
Q) Could you tell us about any particular exhibition that we might have to pay attention to
A) Some of the most notable exhibitions are in the global co-development hall. The exhibition hall is composed of total 80 booths prepared by 35 organizations including Samsung-TESCO, KHNP, EWP, and FKI from Korea and global companies of various industries like auto parts, ICT, chemicals, and distribution. The themes that promote cooperation between major corporations and smaller enterprises and partnership between Korean and overseas businesses will help bring together the participating companies.
In addition, 15 companies from software industry, which has been considered one of Korea's weak points, will exhibit a variety of products that range from mobile office, to intelligent surveillance solution, state-of-art medical imaging, ubiquitous telemedicine, and electronic governance. Also, I hope that visitors do not miss the demonstrations that will be performed in the software industry exhibition hall with the theme ‘Smart Korea'.
