Jungjingong Holds '2022 First Half Export Voucher Matching Fair'

Held Online and Offline on the 9th at COEX, Seoul

Kim Hak-do, Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, is visiting an exhibition booth at the 2022 First Half Export Voucher Matching Fair held at COEX, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) and the Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter referred to as SBC) announced on the 9th that they held the '2022 First Half Export Voucher Matching Fair' at the Grand Ballroom on the first floor of COEX, Seoul.

The Export Voucher Matching Fair is an event that supports matching between participating companies and export service providers to resolve difficulties in utilizing vouchers by participating companies. It started in 2019 and this year marks its 5th edition. Especially this year, reflecting companies' requests to increase face-to-face consultation opportunities, 50 out of 100 matching consultation booths were expanded to offline booths in accordance with the recently somewhat relaxed COVID-19 quarantine guidelines.

At this matching fair, 100 excellent service providers selected by service field and 138 participating companies took part, conducting a total of about 800 online and offline matching consultations. Various export seminars on topics such as export marketing strategies using overseas shopping malls, overseas patent trends, and product certification guidance were also held. Related organizations such as POSCO International, Amazon Web Services Korea, Qoo10 Korea, Korea Institute of Patent Strategy Development, and Korea Testing Laboratory participated in the seminar. The seminar was live-streamed on YouTube, allowing not only pre-registered participating companies but also any companies interested in export to participate. In addition, a separate promotional hall for excellent participating companies was created to introduce those companies and products and to highlight the support achievements of the Export Voucher Project.

Meanwhile, the Export Voucher Project has continuously expanded its support scale over the past six years. It supports about 3,900 domestic and export SMEs annually, and about 2,300 service providers offer export support services. In 2021, the total export amount of companies participating in the Export Voucher Project was approximately 8.9 billion USD, an increase of 1.8 billion USD compared to the previous year. The first export success rate of domestic companies without export experience was 46.2%, and the employment growth rate was 7.2%.

Chairman Kim Hak-do said, "Since COVID-19, SMEs and startups have been facing difficulties such as raw material shortages, interest rate hikes, and global supply chain disruptions," adding, "Going forward, SBC will focus on resolving logistics difficulties and strengthening global competitiveness of SMEs and startups and will do its best to operate the Export Voucher Project."

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