Martial Arts, 'Trade Industry Innovation' Open Innovation Event Held

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Marking its 74th anniversary this year, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) held the ‘KITA x Startup Open Innovation Demo Day’ on the 28th at COEX in Samseong-dong to discover innovative products and services from startups applicable to trade industry support tasks and domestic import-export companies.

The event was attended by about 150 people, including Chairman Kim Young-joo, Vice Chairwoman Park Hye-rin of Omni System, Vice Chairman Han Jin-hyun, other KITA executives, and representatives from trade-related organizations such as KOTRA, Small and Medium Business Corporation, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Seoul Customs, Korea Trade Network (KTNET), Korea City Air Terminal, as well as import-export companies and investors. They observed presentations and exhibitions by the final 12 startups selected through preliminary screening.

The 12 startups proposed various innovative technologies and services to the trade industry in fields such as logistics, payment, security, trade contracts, and management support. These included MMV Global’s overseas logistics company linkage service, K-Logis’s joint logistics contract system, Giwon Tech’s trade fraud prevention email security solution, Missing’s non-face-to-face overseas market and survey service, Law&Good’s SME-lawyer connection platform, and Moin’s blockchain-based overseas remittance service.

KITA selects candidate companies for collaboration by department and thoroughly reviews the applicability of their services in trade industry support projects and all stages of domestic SME import-export. Innovative services that pass proof of concept (PoC) and demonstration will be immediately introduced into trade support operations and also provided as services to KITA’s approximately 70,000 member companies.

Min Myung-gi, CEO of Law&Good, a legal advisory service platform specialized for SMEs and mid-sized companies, stated, "We built a non-face-to-face dedicated platform to provide legal services at reasonable costs," adding, "We will work closely with KITA to become the representative legal advisory platform for import-export SMEs that is easy to use."

KITA will select the final winning company among the 12 startups participating in the presentation through on-site evaluation and online voting. The winning company will receive a one-year office residency at the COEX Startup Branch. Separately, KITA plans to actively promote the products and services of the 12 finalists to trade-related organizations, the trade industry, and investors.

Park Sun-kyung, Head of KITA’s Innovation Ecosystem Office, said, "This open innovation, the first attempt by a trade support organization, will bring work efficiency and innovation to the trade industry and related organizations, and scale-up opportunities to startups, creating a win-win situation," adding, "It is expected to be an opportunity to upgrade trade, a key pillar of Korea’s economic growth."

KITA, which has been conducting open innovation projects for corporate and institutional innovation with large and mid-sized domestic and foreign companies, Gangnam-gu Office, and COEX, plans to continue cooperating with Daewon, Hoban, Dongwon Group, and others in the second half of the year.