Ministry of SMEs Holds Large-Scale Consultation Meeting to Expand Domestic Sales and Exports of SMEs

Minister Lee Young, Ministry of SMEs and Startups [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that, together with the Small and Medium Business Corporation, the Korea Federation of SMEs, and the Foundation for Cooperation between Large, Small Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries, it will hold the ‘2022 Korea Sourcing Week’ at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on the 6th.

The 2022 Sourcing Week is an event held for the first time this year by integrating the previously separate domestic market exhibition (Korea Marketing Fair) and overseas market exhibition (Global Business Sourcing Fair) to comprehensively support the domestic distribution and overseas sales channels of excellent SME products. The event will be held over two days from the 6th to the 7th.

The event will feature 180 buyers from 44 countries overseas, 145 buyers from 60 domestic distribution channels including department stores, large supermarkets, and home shopping, and 1,100 SMEs participating.

There will also be one-on-one export consultations both online and offline with about 700 overseas buyers and SMEs, and one-on-one domestic consultations with about 250 distribution buyers and SMEs. In addition, alongside the export consultations, an ‘Excellent Products Exhibition Hall’ has been set up by selecting 100 SMEs in consumer goods sectors with high domestic and international demand such as beauty, fashion, and small home appliances, allowing domestic and overseas buyers to directly experience excellent SME products on site.

A foreign home shopping product evaluation event will also be held to discover products with high export potential by collaborating with domestic major home shopping channels (GS, Lotte, Hyundai, Gongyoung Home Shopping) and overseas home shopping platforms.

Furthermore, influencers from key SME export countries such as China and Vietnam have been invited to conduct product demonstrations and live commerce sales events for SME products. This will provide an opportunity to introduce excellent domestic SME products not only to buyers but also to local consumers.

At this event, in addition to expanding domestic and overseas sales channels for SMEs, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Samsung SDS to reduce logistics burdens for exporting SMEs and strengthen export competitiveness.

Samsung SDS opened its digital logistics service ‘Cello Square’ in August last year, providing various logistics services to help SMEs easily carry out import and export logistics operations.

As logistics difficulties have prolonged due to recent situations such as the Ukraine crisis and China lockdowns, and voices from the field expressing logistics hardships have increased, the two organizations will support an average monthly 420 TEU of dedicated shipping space for SMEs on six routes including the US East and West Coasts, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America through this MOU.

Additionally, for SMEs that find it difficult to secure local logistics bases individually, overseas warehouse services will be provided, and by utilizing Samsung SDS’s IT solutions, automation and datafication of tasks will be supported so that SMEs can efficiently conduct export operations.

Moreover, logistics SMEs and startups will use ‘Cello Square’ to promote new services, laying the foundation for co-growth between Samsung SDS and logistics SMEs and startups. During the live commerce sales event, Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups, and ‘Cherry Hyeri,’ a Korean beauty YouTuber active in Vietnam, appeared to sell domestic SME cosmetics to Vietnamese consumers.

Minister Lee Young stated, “To overcome the difficult domestic and international business conditions recently faced by SMEs, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will continue to make every effort to expand domestic and overseas sales channels for SMEs, from marketing to securing online sales channels and resolving logistics difficulties.”

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