Korean government actively supports ICT SMEs for overseas market entry to overcome COVID-19

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 23 September 2021 – The Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea (MSIT, Minister: Hyesook Lim) and the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT, President: Jung Ho Park) held the World Online ICT Show (WOW) 2021 Business Meeting to support overseas market entry of Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the ICT industry experiencing difficulties in marketing route development due to the prolongation of COVID-19.

Over 80 Korean ICT SMEs and 62 buyers from 29 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Belgium, China, and Vietnam, attended the business meeting held on September 15 and 16 using the WOW platform. The platform is an online show platform to help domestic ICT businesses enter overseas markets and expand export in the difficult times after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting was held online and offline concurrently at the venue in COEX. For companies that could not attend the fair, an online consultation service was provided in the form of a three-way video conference with the buyers and interpreters.

To realize the successful export contract of the attending companies, a prior demand survey was conducted for business matching with buyers. In addition, to overcome the limitations of the contactless format of this event, a directory book on the participating companies’ products was produced and distributed to buyers to provide sufficient information about the companies.

Moreover, the participating SMEs were provided with opportunities to receive professional trade and IR consulting services in order to help them resolve their current difficulties.

Through the fair, not only was export consulting to a scale of USD 57 million carried out, but also some companies concluded MOUs. For instance, More Dream Inc. entered into a USD 50,000 MOU with MAIZA Tech of Malaysia to export multilingual keyboard technology for smartphones.

Other companies including Hurien and HelloFactory are also in the process of positive discussion to enter into MOUs with overseas buyers.