Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) President Kim Jae-hong presided over a meeting with 19 KOTRA trade office chiefs across China in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on Feb. 8 to discuss how to make the most of Korea-China Free Trade Agreement the two countries have already signed.
KOTRA President Kim held this year’s first meeting of chiefs of trade offices across China in Chengdu, a center of China’s western inland region, since he took KOTRA’s helm. The Korean agency operates 117 trade offices in 80 foreign countries.
China’s eastern coastal region has served as a mecca of China’s rapid growth, but the western inland region is mostly likely to take the baton. Despite the trend, Korean companies’ inroads into China’s western inland area has turned out to be relatively sluggish. In particular, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, has the highest propensity for hallyu (Korean Wave) consumption in the western inland region, so the demand for Korean premium goods is most likely to surge, KOTRA predicted.
“The ushering in of Korea-China FTA Era will serve as another crisis but opportunities for our companies,” said KOTRA President Kim. “We’ll be in the forefront of exploring China as Korea’s second domestic market in advance by letting Korean companies cope with in a nimble and systematic manner.”
“We’re promoting open-ended collaboration with related organizations to make the most of Korea-China FTA,” Kim said at the end of the meeting with the trade office chiefs.
KOTRA plans to establish the Korea Business Center (also called Korea Business Plaza) at the newly built POSCO Center in Beijing in March. The Korea Business Plaza will accommodate 20-odd companies, including Korea Eximbank and Korea Trade Insurance Corp., to provide an upgraded model of supporting Korean companies’ entry into China.
During the meeting, KOTRA President Kim expounded four strategies designed to prepare for the utilization of the Korea-China FTA: open-ended collaboration with related organizations, utilization of FTA economic cooperation scopes, expanding premium export goods to take advantage of China’s domestic market, and bilateral technology and capital exchanges. KOTRA decided to implement projects to flesh out the strategies.
In the first quarter of the year, KOTRA plans to set up the tentatively named Center for Supporting Overseas Utilization in four places, including Beijing and Chengdu, which will be connected with the China Desk of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). In April, some 300 Chinese buyer companies will be invited to the Korea-China FTA Business Plaza, Korea’s largest-ever tradeshow.
Korea now ranks fifth, falling behind the United States and Japan, in China’s imported consumer goods market. KOTRA plans to aggressively utilize online and offline distribution markets to help Korean consumer goods strengthen their presence in China.
