"All-Out Support to Achieve 'Record High' $700 Billion Exports... Large-Scale Export Consultation Event Held"

'2024 First Half Export Boom Korea' Opening
Export Contracts Expected to Reach $160 Million

The government has decided to accelerate its full support to create a booming export atmosphere through a large-scale export consultation event and to achieve the highest-ever export target of $700 billion.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that '2024 First Half Export Boom-up Korea,' jointly hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), will be held for two days from the 15th to the 16th at COEX in Seoul.

Export Boom-up Korea is the nation's representative comprehensive export consultation event that has achieved contract results exceeding $100 million each time since its first event in 2010. Notably, this event is expected to generate synergy effects by jointly hosting the export consultation meetings that KOTRA and KITA had previously held separately. During the consultation period, over 560 leading global buyers from around the world, including Ørsted (Denmark), the world's No. 1 offshore wind power company, Mitsubishi Motors, and Costco (USA), will visit Korea to conduct more than 7,000 export consultations over two days with about 3,000 promising Korean export companies in various fields such as services, information and communication technology (ICT), consumer goods, and materials, parts, and equipment. As a result, approximately 150 contracts and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) worth about $160 million are expected to be signed. In particular, this consultation event has already discovered various achievements, such as Costco's supply of see-through mini refrigerators and export contracts for sandwich panels to Turkey.

Anduk Geun, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. (File photo) Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

At this opening ceremony, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Deok-geun and Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo attended together for the first time to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies, which are key to achieving the $700 billion export target. The two ministers pledged to strengthen inter-ministerial cooperation to enhance support for export SMEs and visited consultation booths together to observe the export consultation site.

Minister Ahn emphasized, "We have set the record-high export target of $700 billion so that exports, which are showing a definite rebound this year, can lead our economic growth. I hope that this Export Boom-up Korea will serve as the catalyst for that."

Minister Oh added, "We are redesigning SME and startup policies from a global perspective and exploring multifaceted measures, including strengthening support for exports in technology and service sectors. To expand the global advancement and competitiveness of SMEs and startups, we will establish a one-team consultative body for SME and startup support with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and overseas diplomatic missions."