Oh Young-ho, the president of the KOTRA
SEOUL, KOREA --- Next year, the KOTRA will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Oh Young-ho took office as new president of the KOTRA on December 5 and vowed to make the KOTRA fulfill its responsibilities better in this era of trade while preparing for the next 50 years.
The Korean economy is close to becoming an advanced economy while its trade volume entered the USD1 trillion, a ninth in the world. But due to economic polarization, small and medium-sized enterprises face more difficulties and do not enjoy effects from an increase in exports. Jobless young people are another serious social problem.
“Under these circumstances, the government and companies are have much expectation for the roles of the KOTRA,” said Oh. “This is because the Korean economy is able to address such problems only through active overseas business advancements and the KOTRA is the only organization that can support such advancements.”
These days, the roles of the KOTRA have been weakened due to the expansion of independent marketing capabilities of companies and the flood of information. Other Korean organizations are also trying to perform functions to support Korean companies’ advancement into overseas markets. “In this context, the KOTRA is required to have a clear renewed vision, a strong sense of responsibility and endless self-innovation during the process from an era of USD 1 trillion in exports to an era of USD 2 trillion in exports,” Oh continued. "We need to seek three ways to increase Korea’s exports by USD 500 billion.”
“First of all, we can add USD 200 billion in exports by overcoming about 30% of Korea discount while increasing world market shares of Korea’s main export items.” Oh added.
“Second, we can create additional USD150 billion by developing niche markets for Korean exporters and globalizing new growth engine sectors. We can increase the remaining USD150 billion by expanding the portion of exports by small and medium-sized companies a great deal. If we expand the portion of exports by small and medium-sized companies from the current 30% to 60%, they can expand their market shares in the world and develop new overseas markets.”
“We can create new markets for Korean firms through support for product deliveries and R&D cooperation. We can also develop projects by discovering demand by developing countries and help Korean companies receive orders from them. The KOTRA can help small and medium-sized enterprises tap into overseas markets in cooperation with big companies. This means expanding win-win partnership between small and medium-sized companies and big companies,” Oh explained.
“I want to emphasize three points to make the KOTRA effectively play such roles,” Oh continued. “First, I will introduce more practical management. It is important to deal with change ahead of others. Then we can offer services to meet customer. Unless we take the lead in our work, it will be difficult for us to complete projects easily, accomplish good results and receive good evaluations about of work performances.”
“We need to find answers at our work and business sites,” Oh said. “It is impossible to understand what customers want and how the world market changes by staying in the office. The KOTRA should find its tasks in overseas markets and corporate business sites, taking advantage of organizations in such places. I will practice business site-oriented and speedy management by meeting foreign buyers and small and medium-sized enterprises in provincial areas.”
Oh picked stronger communication as the second important point. “Communication is an important asset that can solve most problems,” Oh said. “It is hard for employees of the KOTRA to enhance the efficiency of the KOTRA unless they communicate well with one another as the KOTRA has a wide global network. I will listen to employees through on-line and off-line channels and push for communication combined with analog sensitivity. We need to strengthen policy-related discussions with the government’s organizations and provide them with contents containing voices and ideas of employees.”
The third point is the KOTRA’s preparation for the future, Oh said. “We need to prepare for the next 50 years with a sense of crisis,”Oh continued “We have to think about and discuss the future of the KOTRA with the following three topics. First of all, the KOTRA should cement its foundation as major national infrastructure. When the KOTRA was founded in 1962, it had four overseas organizations. At the moment, the KOTRA has 111. It is high time to devise concrete measures on how we can efficiently operate this wide infrastructure.”
“Second, we have to focus on developing excellent human resources,” Oh said. "The KOTRA can provide excellent services which can live up to expectations of the government and companies by becoming an organization of specialists. To this end, we need to review our human resources management systems and seek ways to nurture more specialized workers.”
Oh believes that the KOTRA need to offer employees opportunities to develop and expand their specialties by improving its education and training programs. Oh added that the KOTRA also need to change its human resources management system such as introducing and promoting a performance-based compensation system.
Oh finished his speech by saying, "If you face any problems while you work hard, please directly let me know. I am ready to listen to you and help you. Let's go together for success.”
