Comprehensive Aid for Gyeonggi SMEs
Comprehensive Aid for Gyeonggi SMEs
  • Jeon Hae-sun
  • 승인 2009.02.23 17:12
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Lee Gae-youl, General Manager of the Trade Support Team in GSBC
Many people say that this economic crisis will be remembered as one of the most severe in history. But even though they know how trying this time is, they don't realize how hard many government organizations are working to cope with it. And they also don't know how important the governmental efforts to help businesses have always been in our history.

Gyeonggi Province has established the Gyeonggi Small and Medium Business Center to support its small and mediumsized enterprises. With relocation to the new GSBC building, the GSBC has furnished an active support system for small and medium enterprises. The GSBC provides a One-stop Service for small and medium businesses with the cooperation of small business support institutions, credit guarantee and financial institutions, authorized inspection agencies and many others. Their new support system, the One-Roof, One-Stop Service System, helps SMEs solve their difficulties at a single location.

Lee Gae-youl, General Manager of the Trade Support Team in the GSBC said: “There are approximately 35,000 SMEs in Gyeonggi province. We have tried to focus on the emerging markets. In the past, we thought the growth potential was mainly laid in BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. So, we opened support offices there. In 2005 we opened one in Mumbai, India, and another in Moscow, Russia. In 2008, we opened in Brazil and Malaysia. Even though there is a severe global crisis, those markets will be continuously prosperous in the future.”

Open invitation to GSBC trade meet

“We want to revitalize our activities this month. These days, the demand for SMEs trying to go abroad is very weak,” said Mr. Lee. “For example, many SMEs that apply to foreign exhibitions cancel a lot. The huge increase in the exchange rate is one of the factors to this inactivity. So, we are trying to bring many foreign buyers to Korea. It is a kind of inbound concept. In other words, we are focusing on giving Korean SMEs more export outlets.”

GSBC held a GSBC trade meet in January with the catchphrase “Rise up Gyeonggi.” There were a lot of Korean SMEs and it was quite successful. In this trade meet, about 70 foreign buyers were invited from such places as India, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates and from the US, Canada, and Mexico. The GSBC operated a one-to-one individual matching fair with 300 businesses selling household goods, digital consumer products, fashion merchandise, food manufacturing equipment, and IT parts.

Since the participating companies directly requested consultations with buyers after they searched for them online, the success rate is expected to be higher than before. One Mexican visitor said that the products from Korean businesses had very good quality and he got a very good impression there. He also said that he wanted to do business with that Korean company later.

The CEO of GSBC, Hong Ki-hwa, emphasized the importance of this trade meet. He said that GSBC held this fair to suggest new foreign market conditions to Korean busineses who are looking for them. Lee Gae-youl, General Manager of the Trade Support Team, said this about the trade meet: “GSBC has been inviting foreign buyers with excellent buying power and promoting market growth through match making businesses of Gyeonggi province. Last year, 1,105 companies participated and negotiations are still ongoing.

GSBC usually holds this kind of trade meet six times a year, every two months. It will be held again this March, in Suwon. About 100 businesses from the 15 to 20 countries will participate. They will also have seminars. In Gyeonggi province, products with IT applications are strong. Recently, the demand for security related items is increasing. Also, in the Japanese market, the demand for innovative household products is really strong. Korea creates innovative products; therefore Korean SMEs are in the right position to can give the Japanese innovation market a run for its money.

Fairs at home and abroad

G-Fair is a very important annual event. Last year it was held in KINTEX in October and it will be held in September this year in the same location. It is the fair for participating SMEs to meet with almost 400 consultant buyers. On average, approximately 2,000 consultations are made during the G-Fair period. In the SME's view, trade meets such as the Gfair held in Korea are more welcome and active.

GSBC also focuses on participating in foreign exhibitions, usually 16 times a year. Domestic businesses often visit foreign exhibitions in order to convert themselves into export companies. There are many other purposes such as to investigate the market of the country, get feedback about their products in the country, make a schedule for later development, and investigate their competitors. GSBC also plans to hold their own exhibition in foreign countries like India, Brazil, and China. This May, GSBC will hold an exhibition in India. There will be more than fifty booths and over one thousand buyers. The program will be diverse and include a visit to buyer plants.

Strategy planning

Then, what can be said about the features and international competitive power of Gyeonggi products and technology Lee said: “Basically, the response to Gyeonggi products is highly polarized. There are a lot of cheap Chinese products surging into the international market and that weakens the status of Korea in undeveloped countries. On the other hand, the quality of Chinese products is really poor and the demand for Korean products is increasing when customers realize this.”

When we consider the whole situation, it would be competitive for Korean SMEs to make an effort to develop products with cutting-edge technology. Korea has a strong reputation in the IT industry, and recently there has been a huge demand for innovative products with high technology. Korean SMEs can take advantage of this market if they focus. Brand-new products with brilliant ideas and nanotechnology are really exclusive and difficult to copy.

For the better life of Gyeonggi SMEs, the Trade Support Team in GSBC is working hard with cool reason and warm hearts. Lee said: “The main reason for our team is to provide even a piece of straw to SMEs struggling in the severe storm. All of our team members are highly motivated and they are qualified, intelligent workers with a lot of field experience, especially in the trade field.”

He continues, “These days, SMEs are confronting a severe financial crisis. So we are doing our best to help them to survive in this emergency. And the best help would be a supply of money. SMEs with financial difficulties are like patients who are suffering from the flu. Therefore, the first step should be to break their fever. We cannot tell them to get more exercise to reinforce their immune system. The most important and urgent thing to them is to enlarge their market and opportunity to sell their stock.”


댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트