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

Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held an online meeting for overseas headquarters chiefs on Jan. 18 and 19, and suggested ways of exploring entry strategies meetings of each market and providing support.

Unlike the previous years in which KOTRA held a meeting for overseas trade office chiefs of each sphere, all 10 chiefs of regional headquarters, as well as major department heads at KOTRA headquarters, participated in this year’s virtual meeting.

Participants announced entry strategies, reflecting on each sphere’s characteristics and market opportunities, such as responding to the demand of the “new normal” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That includes home economy consumption and medical and disinfection products; advancing into e-commerce platforms, which are surging in the wake of lockdowns, and entry into digital and green New Deal sectors using major countries’ efforts to boost the national economy; and raw materials, parts and equipment industries’ overseas market entries responding to global value chains and ways of attracting advanced industry investments.

Looking at each sphere, China is expected to see increased cooperation in areas such as digital, consumption goods, distribution, and the medical & bio sectors in accordance with two-pronged, open-market strategies to spur domestic demand.

Europe is predicted to see rising demand in digital facilities such as 5G telecom, which have been put on the hold on top of eco-friendly markets such as green mobility and the hydrogen economy.

North America is forecast to see cooperative opportunities in new future industries such as future cars, medical/bio and ICT while Southeast Asia is likely to see opportunities in the wake of the effectuation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a trade agreement among 15 member countries of the Asian-Pacific region, and realigning of GVC.

The Middle Eastern region is targeted with opportunities related to consumption recovery following the recovery of crude oil prices.

As for 2021, the global economy is predicted to grow between 4 percent to 5 percent, economic stimulus steps are expected, and vaccines will be rolled out.

The speed of the recovery of the global economy will hinge on diverse factors such as the effects of “Bidenomics,” U.S.-China trade conflict, and how to respond to climate change, and the biggest uncertainty is about the pandemic.

The recovery of the global economy is too early to be forecast with factors such as what speed of the rollout of vaccines against the pandemic.

Assuming scenarios on when the pandemic will end in the first half, the third quarter or year-end, KOTRA predicted the timing of each region’s normalization changing according to the rollout of vaccines.

The agency plans to readjust the portion of face-to-face and non-face-to-face projects to support exports and investments according to each scenario and each region and implement 020 projects in a nimble fashion.

KOTRA President Kwon Pyung-oh said, “This year is a time when uncertainties such as the strengthening of new trade orders of U.S. and European labor and environment, acceleration of the realigning of the global value chain (GVC) and foreign currency fluctuations, which are greater than last year need to be watched closely.”

KOTRA will focus on reflecting customers’ experience in services through digital transformation of export support, and spurring companies’ exports through online and off-line convergence projects corresponding to each region, he said.
President Kwon: ‘2021 Will Determine Leaders of Post-COVID-19 Economy’

With the spread of non-face-to-face and online business models in the wake of the pandemic, trade digitalization is accelerating in a brisk pace.

Digital capabilities such as the building of platforms and the use of data have emerged as competitive forces in the global market.

The global online market, which is growing fast, now serves as new opportunities for Korean SMEs and mid-size promising enterprises which can gain access to it with less cost.

But uncertainties still linger like the direction of trade policies of the newly inaugurated Biden U.S. administration, which is not yet certain and a possibility of “a no-deal Brexit.”

Preemptive steps to respond to not only opaque trade environment but also the realigning of the global value chain, the strengthening of environment regulations and rapidly changing trade order like digital trade regimes need to be taken.

KOTRA announced export outlooks and business operation plan for the year 2021 to cope with these global trade environment changes. KOTRA predicts that exports for 2021 will stand at between $540 and &550 billion, up 6 percent to 7 percent over 2020.

KOTRA is determined to advance its scheme to explore new markets and globalize new growth engines based on customer-oriented digital transformation on trade and investments.