Gu Ja-yeol, Chairman of Muhyeop, Visits KIMES "Will Strive to Revitalize the Exhibition Industry"

Koo Ja-yeol, Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (front row, left), is visiting and touring the exhibition hall at the 'International Medical Devices and Hospital Equipment Exhibition (KIMES 2021)' held at COEX, Seoul on the 18th.
[Photo by Korea International Trade Association]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] Koo Ja-yeol, Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), visited the 'International Medical Devices & Hospital Equipment Exhibition' (KIMES 2021) held at COEX in Seoul on the 18th to listen to the opinions of exhibition officials and participating companies and promised to make efforts to revitalize the exhibition industry.

KIMES is one of the largest domestic exhibitions using the entire COEX venue for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year. On this day, KITA stated, "The social distancing capacity restrictions are excessive and are causing the exhibition industry to shrink," and requested the government to allow exhibitions to be held without visitor number restrictions up to Level 2.

The exhibition is an important means for companies to promote new technologies and products and to expand exports by discovering overseas buyers. However, KITA predicted that the draft revision of the social distancing Level 4 announced recently by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters presents significantly stricter standards compared to the previous ones, making it practically difficult to hold exhibitions. If the new standards are finalized, visitor numbers are estimated to decrease by about 40% at Level 1 and by more than 57% at Level 2.

Lee Dong-gi, Head of the Innovation Growth Division at KITA, emphasized, "Excessive capacity restrictions may block small and medium-sized enterprises' opportunities for exhibition marketing and worsen the difficulties of the exhibition industry, which is a national trade infrastructure," adding, "Since exhibition venues implement stricter quarantine measures than the health authorities' standards, reasonable capacity restriction standards are necessary."

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