By invitation, the Buy Korea 2009 Korean Product Showcase promised to help invitees by creating new business partnerships and establishing yearly plans with Korean manufacturers. KOTRA organized offline and online business meetings for both 700 in-booth buyers and 500 online buyers and helped them to find reliable Korean suppliers, manufacturers, and business partners.
The companies with the highest sales records with Korea - over 1 million US dollars - are categorized as Global Buyers. The 184 Global Buyers including GM, FORD, OfficeMax, and Bombardier heated up the event floor even more with large expected sales at stake, and the British Airports Corporation was in search of Korean suppliers who could collaborate with their airport remodeling project.
The top renewable energy companies also came to Buy Korea 2009 including the number one solar energy company Q-Cell and number one wind turbine company Vestas. A total number of 47 leading European renewable energy companies participated and gave a presentation at the Pre-conference on January 13. This presentation attracted 250 related domestic companies.
The main difference between the events from last year and this year was that this year, the highest number of participants were from Europe. Fifty percent of the buyers were from Europe, America, and Japan. Twenty-five percent of the buyers were in the IT field and Consumer Products. The rest of the buyers came from the biomedical, automotive parts, new renewable energy, and TV content industries.
The director of Marketing Strategy at KOTRA stated: “The increase in the number of developed countries’ participation in the event shows us that our products surely have added value to enter their markets. The significance of the visit from European renewable energy entrepreneurs and American government suppliers foreshadows the active collaboration in the trade market in 2009 and is expected to encourage the global trading economy.”
