President Cho Joon-hee of the Industrial Bank of Korea.

   The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) held a meeting of more than 1,000 branch managers all over the country to talk about IBK’s second half management strategy presided over by President Cho Joon-hee at the bank’s Chungju Training Institute in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province on Aug. 26.

The Industrial Bank of Korea will operate a special booth for low-income people and people with low credit ratings called “The IBK Integrated Financial Support Center for General People,” which is located at the head office in Eulji-ro, downtown Seoul, beginning Sept. 16, the bank said.

The support center will welcome those who need financial counseling and support to recover their credit statuses and avoid financial defaults and it will be staffed by former managers and others who retired from the bank after serving for many years, the bank said. The IBK support center will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

President Cho called on every participant in the meeting to do all they can to make IBK a leading global bank with operations on all five continents and six oceans so that Korean SMEs can deal with IBK banking outlets everywhere, not just at home.

Cho pointed out that the world market, cultural contents, and IP finance are the three essential factors likely to keep IBK going as a powerful growth engine, and that the efforts the company has put in over the past two and half years will show results soon.

Cho also noted that consumer protection is a call that no one can ignore, requiring all of the IBK family to do all they can to fully serve the customers and by expressing sincerity and truth with every word they speak.

“IBK should find its way through creative growth opportunities as the direction for our strategy in the second half. In order to be ready to do that, the construction of a creative growth base, and strengthening support for businesses with excellent potential for growth will be part of the goals that we have to achieve in the second half,” Cho said.

Attending the conference were around 1,000 branch managers from around the country and overseas as well as leading executives. The bank presented awards for those who served with distinction in the first half of this year.

In the meantime, IBK recently published a handbook on the impending Korea-China free trade agreement explaining its effects on SMEs and tasks to be solved in the days ahead and distributed about 50,000 copies across the country.

Edited by the IBK Economic Research Institute, the handbook includes an outline of the FTA between Korea and China and issues and problems of the possible impact on SMEs when it is concluded that a CEO should know.

The book covers the progress made so far in the FTA talks including contentious points and SME products that can be exported to China under the FTA. It also lists the 10 things an SME must do to ensure its success under the FTA, including analysis of its competitive edge over others, confirmation of tax reduction on its products, drawing up a pricing strategy, making China a main import country for its complete products, and luring foreign direct investment to Korea, among others.

The 50,000 copies of the handbook will be distributed to companies already operating in China and the operators of trade between Korea and China. More free copies can be obtained by phoning the IBK research institute at 02-729-5111.

China accounts for around 25 percent of exports of Korean goods annually, the biggest trading country for Korea, and the pending FTA will be a great boost for bilateral trade between the two countries.

IBK officials said depending on how companies take advantage of the FTA, it could be a boon for their trade with China or a failure and IBK will provide greater support depending on how well SMEs make use of the FTA in the future, they added.