President Kwon Pyung-oh of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) recently converted the Art Collabo Exhibition on the first floor of its Headquarters in Yeomgok-dong, Seoul, into a teleconference trade negotiation room.

The initiative helps SME exporters with insufficient ICT infrastructure, and who experience hardships in exploring overseas export markets, due to the global COVID pandemic. Ten teleconferencing booths of the newly opened area is in addition to five booths on the second floor.

The new teleconference trade negotiation room normally opens at 7 a.m. every day, but is on alert 24 hours a day for urgent requests.

The booths and a small lobby were crowded with businessmen in the afternoon of April 14. An appointment list was fully booked on an hourly basis. In the fourth booth, there was a quadrilateral teleconference trade negation session, in which an official with an industrial pump maker talked about his company’s waste treatment water pump.

An interpreter translated it in English, while an official with KOTRA’s Bangkok Office conveyed the message in Thai to a Thai buyer.

KOTRA is also offering interpretation services in teleconferences for SMEs. The agency provides services in six languages –English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Russian – under contracts with firms specializing in interpretation. If necessary, KOTRA can make arrangements for interpretation in Arabic, Mongolian, and other languages.

As the spread of COVID-19 makes it hard for SME exporters to have face-to-face meetings, KOTRA plays the part of bridging Korean SMEs and their overseas buyers.

Trade negotiation departments with KOTRA headquarters have been deluged with 70 to 80 cases daily.

KOTRA has expanded teleconferencing trade negotiations via headquarters, local support teams and overseas trade offices since Feb. 13 when the spread of COVID-19 was in an initial stage in Korea. KOTRA succeeded in conducting 3,279 teleconferencing trade negotiations for about two months until April 17.

The figure represented a more than triple jump over the whole of last year, which had 960 teleconferencing trade negotiations. SMEs with insufficient ICT infrastructure in office and at home have visited KOTRA’s teleconference trade negotiation room.

SMEs’ collaboration with KOTRA, a Korean public entity, has contributed to enhancing the standing of their brand and products. KOTRA’s efforts to lend a helping hand to SMEs have paid off: amounts of signed trade contracts or tentative agreements stood at $40 million for the recent two months.

For instance, Wellbeing Food in Pohang exported rice noodles to a food maker in Shanghai on the back of rising demand for simple foods and snacks.

Kim Sang-mook, a managing director with KOTRA’s Innovative Growth Division, said: “As overseas fairs have been cancelled, we have focused on marketing activities on items such as consumer products, industrial materials, parts and medical diagnosis tools in junction with the holding of on-line special exhibitions.

KOTRA plans to expand the number of trade negotiation centers from current 79 to 148. KOTRA is also helping youth find overseas jobs.

On the same day, ADD Power Grid Korea hosted an on-line employment explanation session on the third booth of KOTRA’s teleconference trade negotiation room.

The session was designed to help the company explain its employment schedule and employment guidelines by contacting about 40 Korean youth in real time.

KOTRA is considering converting the Overseas Job Fair, being held every May, into an online interview session.

An official with a Korean company talks with a foreign buyer with the help of a KOTRA official via teleconference. (Photos: KOTRA)