KOTRA Opens GP Center in Osaka... Helping Korean Companies Enter the Japanese Market

Support for Entry into Japan's Procurement Market in Power, Shipbuilding Equipment, and Railway Sectors

KOTRA has opened the GP Center (Global Partnering Center) in Osaka, Japan, to support domestic companies wishing to enter the Japanese materials, parts, and equipment market. The opening ceremony held on the 7th was attended by Choi Jang-sung, Head of the KOTRA Osaka Trade Center (fifth from the left), and key figures.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hye-young] On the 7th, KOTRA announced that it has opened a GP Center (Global Partnering Center) in Osaka to support domestic companies wishing to enter the Japanese materials, parts, and equipment market.

The overseas GP Centers serve as bases to help Korean export companies establish partnerships with leading local companies. KOTRA currently operates a total of 10 centers, mainly in the United States, Japan, Germany, and China. The GP Centers provide services such as △office space provision △local market information △marketing and sales support by dedicated staff.

At the opening ceremony of the Osaka GP Center, officials from related Korean and Japanese organizations, including the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Osaka, Japan JETRO, Osaka Foreign Company Attraction Center, and the World Korean Trade Association (OKTA), attended. Korean companies residing in the Osaka GP Center and Japanese global buyers also participated.

The Osaka GP Center is the tenth GP Center opened by KOTRA and the second in Japan following Nagoya. The center will specialize in the key industries of western Japan, where Osaka is located, such as power, railway vehicles, shipbuilding, and machinery, and will work to discover demand for Korean companies to enter the value chain.

A representative from Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (Kansai Denryoku), who attended the opening ceremony, said, “We have received much help from the KOTRA Osaka Trade Center when discovering new overseas parts suppliers, and we believe that the opening of the Osaka GP Center will be an opportunity to widely introduce Korea’s competitive parts suppliers.”

Kansai Electric Power supplies electricity to the western region of Japan and is the second-largest power generation and supply company in Japan after Tokyo Electric Power Company. Following the opening of the GP Center, the KOTRA Osaka Trade Center plans to hold the ‘2021 GP Osaka Consultation Meeting’ online during the third week of December (13?17), discovering overseas procurement demands from 15 Japanese global buyers, including Kansai Electric Power, Shikoku Electric Power, Kinki Sharyo (railway vehicles), Namura Shipbuilding, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (shipbuilding equipment).

Choi Jang-sung, head of the KOTRA Osaka Trade Center, said, “The GP Center is an essential base for building broad partnerships with Japanese companies,” adding, “We will continue to support our companies so that they can not only export to Japanese companies but also aim to enter the global value chain through diversified cooperation such as investment attraction and joint R&D.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.