In a meeting with reporters celebrating his 100 days in office on Feb. 27, President Kang Kyung-sung of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) stressed the need for Korea to make an inroad into South America, Africa and Southeast Asian countries. He said the countries have so far been neglected, and the exploration of the markets is essential to be a global top 5 power for sustainable growth of the Korean economy.
President Kang said, “We’re in a risk of a trade structure in which Korea depends too heavily on North America and China in the wake of geopolitical changes, and Korea has to categorically diversify exports to major “global south countries” with higher economic growth potential and rising purchasing power, such as India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia.”
KOTRA is considering expanding regional trade offices in these countries to give a leg-up to Korean exporters there, and trade delegations and trade branches’ projects in global south regions will be dramatically expanded, he said. Kang said KOTRA will open a new trade office in Monterrey, Mexico and Tbilisi, Georgia, to offer knitted local support this year.
As for trade with China, he said that China is no longer a market but a competitor, and Korea will have to brace for competition with China as the industrial rivalry among Korea and China intensifies.
Korea has to maintain a difference with China in mainstay industries, such as advanced products, and the nation needs to make an inroad into the Chinse consumer market on the back of Chinese’s rising per capita income, President Kang said.
President Kang said the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine will serve as a good opportunity for Korean companies if they are given the chance to participate in power, road, tap water and medical sectors related to the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Kang said KOTRA will send information related to reconstruction via a related emergency taskforce. The agency will closely monitor Korean companies’ possibility of reentering Russia.
KOTRA has been operating an export and investment emergency taskforce to cope with the new trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
President Kang said on top of ramping up monitoring in the North American region, local employees with KOTRA’s trade office in the United States have been encouraged to grasp information as quick as possible and deliver it to Korean companies.
KOTRA has seen power raw materials and equipment, shipbuilding, energy infrastructure, AI and consumer goods as promising industries in the President Trump era, and KOTRA plans to expand related research, he said.
President Kang emphasized stronger policy support for export companies. KOTRA’s trade offices across the world will increase from the current 129 to 140, the budget will rise from current 664.9 billion won to 750 billion won and manpower will increase from 1,838 employees to 1,900 employees, he said.
Through these measures, KOTRA aims to raise the number of export SMEs from current 96,000 to 100,000, he said.
KOTRA Participates in Largest-Ever Integrated Korea Pavilion at MWC 2025
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA operates an integrated Korean pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC 2025), taking place in Barcelona, Spain, from March 3 to March 6, they said on Feb. 26.
Korea’s integrated pavilion at MWC 2025 is the largest-ever, with nine government agencies and 147 companies’ participation in accordance of a policy of operating an integrated Korea pavilion of overseas exhibitions through cooperation among government agencies.
Participating companies promote their excellent technologies under the integrated brand “KOREA” and the integrated pavilion serves as an important opportunity to demonstrate to the world Korea’s standing and status as a mobile powerhouse.
Among some 190 Korean participants are Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus. Chinese companies, including Huawei and Xiaomi, which did not attend CES 2025 in Las Vegas in January, are to unveil new technologies and products at MWC 2025.
At Korea’s integrated pavilion, Korea AI convergence tech exporters participate at the fair to display AI technologies in diverse areas, such as beauty and cloud sourcing in accordance with keywords of “MWC 2025 AI+ and 5G Inside.”
Korean companies, such as Eucast, a developer of 5G portable mobile base stations, and C4Line, which developed a gigabit transceiver, are expected to post good performances.
KOTRA President Kang Kyung-sung said, “MWC is a global B2B business matching event with all global tech company decision-makers in attendance, and Korean innovative companies will expand export points through participation in famous overseas exhibitions, and KOTRA expects our innovative companies’ passion to lead to exports at MWC.”
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