"Expanding the Scope of Video Consultations to Include Employment and Entrepreneurship"
KOTRA will operate 10 additional video consultation rooms to meet the increasing demand for non-face-to-face overseas buyer consultations after COVID-19. (Photo by KOTRA)
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] KOTRA announced on the 8th that it will expand the number of video consultation rooms to 15 in response to the increased demand for non-face-to-face consultations with overseas buyers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The consultation rooms will serve as control towers to facilitate smooth connections between domestic companies, buyers, and interpreters.
KOTRA held a video consultation meeting between overseas buyers and domestic companies on the same day, foregoing an opening ceremony. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo visited the consultation rooms to encourage participating domestic companies. Minister Sung also held a video conference with Lee Gil-beom, head of KOTRA's Europe Regional Headquarters, to hear about the difficulties faced by European export companies and discuss improvement measures.
During the event, 85 consultations were conducted between 35 overseas buyers from the United States, Japan, Russia, Vietnam, and other countries and 70 domestic companies. Due to the postponement of the world's largest beauty exhibition, the '2020 Italy Bologna Beauty Fair,' to September, buyers from the Bologna exhibition also participated in the video consultations. A video consultation week linked with industry-specific online special exhibitions built on the export promotion site 'BuyKorea' was held simultaneously. In particular, some companies that registered products in the online special pavilion were given the opportunity to register as vendors with the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity.
Since mid-February, KOTRA has supported 2,343 video consultations between 1,309 domestic companies and 1,073 overseas buyers, achieving results worth 20 million dollars. Going forward, KOTRA plans to increase the number of video consultation rooms within local support groups nationwide to 45 in line with government measures to revitalize industry. The number of overseas video consultation booths will be doubled to 88. The online exhibition halls within BuyKorea will also be expanded from 33 to 60 by the end of the year.
KOTRA President Kwon Pyung-oh stated, “Although COVID-19 has increased difficulties for domestic companies in overseas marketing, there is also an opportunity to transform our exports into a digital format. We will expand the scope of video consultations to include employment and startups, and continue to expand non-face-to-face marketing projects such as online exhibitions.”
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