The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) announced on Oct. 27 that it will participate as an organizer of the 2024 KOREA Business EXPO Vienna, which will kick off at the Austria Center in Vienna, to support the overseas expansion of Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) connected to Korean businesspeople around the world.
The 2024 KOREA Business EXPO Vienna is an event that gathers Korean businesspeople from more than 150 chapters of the World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association (World OKTA) in 71 countries.
This year marks its 28th anniversary and will have the largest-ever scale with 376 booths and 285 participating companies.
KBIZ will set up the KBIZ Pavilion at the 2024 KOREA Business EXPO Vienna and showcase products from 25 outstanding Korean SMEs to promote Korean culture and Korean SME products.
The exhibition and consultation will run for three days from Oct. 29 to 31.
Various buyers and visitors will visit the KBIZ Pavilion, which is comprised of K-beauty, K-food and more. The pavilion will provide an opportunity to promote Korean SME products.
“I consider Korean businessmen around the world private diplomats for Korea,” said Kim Ki-moon, chairman of KBIZ, in his welcome speech at the opening ceremony.
“I ask them to become salespeople for eight million Korean SMEs to expand their business into overseas markets based on the trust and experience which they have accumulated in overseas market.”
KBIZ holds the Online-Offline Integrated Product Show in cooperation with eight retail giants for the second half of 2024 in Seoul on Oct. 30.
Online-Offline Product Show in Second Half of 2024
On Oct. 30, KBIZ announced that it held the Online-Offline Integrated Product Show in cooperation with eight retail giants for the second half of 2024 in Yeouido, Seoul.
The Online-Offline Integrated Product Show was a win-win growth project that supports SMEs to enter distribution channels in partnership with large companies.
In the second half of 2024, eight distribution giants - five major department stores (Galleria, Lotte, Shinsegae, Hyundai and AK) and three big retailers (Lotte Mart, Homeplus, and Lotte ON) - participated to help Korean SMEs increase their sales competitiveness.
About 60 SME products in categories such as food, household goods, health & beauty, and fashion goods participated in the show and consulted with the MDs of each retailer.
After the show, companies that enter distribution channels through additional counseling will receive benefits such as lower commissions, participation in pop-up events, free use of shelves and entry into sales outlets exclusively for SMEs.
Survey on Difficulties of the Implementation of the Chemicals Control Act
KBIZ, led by Chairman Kim Ki-moon, announced on Oct. 28 the results of the “Survey on Difficulties in the Implementation of the Chemicals Control Act” conducted from Aug. 5 to Sept. 10 involving 502 companies that are subject to the Chemicals Control Act.
According to the survey, the most difficult part of the process of obtaining a business license under the Chemicals Control Act is securing technical personnel (37.7 percent).
In particular, companies with fewer than 30 full-time employees, nearly half (48.4 percent) responded that it was still difficult to secure technical personnel, despite the fact that employment standards under the Chemicals Act were relaxed for a limited time until 2028.
The average cost of preparing chemical accident prevention and control plans was 6.958,000 won and the average time required was 10.3 weeks.
Complex processes to prepare documents (58.1 percent) were the most common reason for difficulties in preparing chemical accident prevention and control plans, followed by long preparing time (38.7 percent)’ and a lack of human resources (38.7 percent).
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