Global Electric Power Tech 2009 has proven to be a wonderful showcase of cutting-edge technologies in the field of electricity. This year has been one of high fame and large success in attracting enormous attention from home and abroad. Over 250 companies from 22 countries opened their own showrooms and 110 buyers and sellers from 35 countries visited the show. Global Power Tech was designed to promote the electricity-related industries and to lay a foundation for the exchange of information and ideas among businessmen and women. To this end, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) strongly supported the debut of Global Tech in 2002 with the cooperation of 21 electricity companies at home.
From Asia 57 governmental and private buyers visited Global Electric Power Tech to collect information on the state of the art in electricity. Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan are among them. Buyers also included five from the US, four from CIS countries, four from Central and South America, and ten from Europe.
In the Korean Electricity Industry Room in which 55 Korean companies gathered, there were a lot of export and import consultations among foreign and Korean businesses. According to KOTRA, there have been a total of 733 export consultations worth US$35.6 billion. Korea's Dong-su Electricity Generation met with Nampower, a Namibian power company, and invited Nampower to its company located in Tangjin, North Chungchung Province. Takuma and Tada from Japan requested some Korean companies to export their products to Japan. KOTRA will help with the resulting details for those two. Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp asked Korean partners to participate in its project to build Thai Binh Thermal Power Plant. Iranian EHSAN Join-venture decided to take into consideration building an oil refinery system with the help of a Korean partner. Kenya Power & Lighting also found some Korean technologies to adapt to its own power facilities and asked some Korean companies to submit invoices.
Polish PGE S.A. asked Korean partners to participate in its international bid in an electric transformer project. One of the cable producers signed a contract with Vietnam Power Corp. worth US$500 million. UAE CMI, Indian Essar and Kenya Rural Electrification Autonomy have all reached agreements with Korean sellers.
Among the visitors, African countries showed huge interest because they have neither produced nor provided enough electricity for their people and industries. Officials from the Kenya Electricity Generation Authority, Uganda Energy Department and Namibian Power Autonomy also visited Korea during the show. They all have plans to build power plants.
In the seminars held in the spot, experts forecast that by 2010 the market of power in Korea would be so saturated that market players would find it hard to win contracts from customers. The growth ratio will go down to 1.4 percent annually. That would further be lowered to less than 1 percent by 2020. Experts pointed out that in order to survive in the saturated market, Korean companies should make inroads into global markets such as Africa and the developing countries. Experts see that the world demand for electricity will reach 20.8 trillion kWH by the end of 2010 with an average growth rate of 4.3 percent from 18.2 trillion kWH in 2006.
For Korean industries which need new markets, Global Electric Power Tech provides a strong springboard for them to jump into the deep water of the global markets.
Buyers came from all around the world. From Africa 70 buyers came hailing from Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Nigeria, and Egypt. African buyers desperately collected information about electricity technologies which are needed for their economic development. They showed interest in electricity IT, heavy electric products, and electricity-producing plants.
