KOTRA Supports Small and Medium Enterprises Entering the CIS Market

'Almaty O2O Korean Products Exhibition' to be held by next month
Online and offline exhibition marketing to be promoted

A buyer visiting the Korea Product Exhibition is examining products at a domestic company's booth and conducting business consultations.
[Photo by KOTRA]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Ye-joo] KOTRA announced on the 21st that it will hold the 'Almaty O2O Korean Excellent Products Exhibition' for one month until the 21st of next month to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies in entering the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) market.

This event was planned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan, a key partner country in South Korea's New Northern Policy, and to expand economic cooperation between the two countries. In particular, since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, exports by Korean companies to Kazakhstan have increased by 98% until July, highlighting the growing importance of the CIS market. KOTRA plans to actively utilize this opportunity by supporting various export marketing activities for Korean companies entering the CIS through the O2O exhibition.

First, through the offline exhibition held from the 19th to the 21st of this month, 105 companies conducted online and offline consultations with 170 Kazakh buyers, and online promotional marketing for participating companies was simultaneously conducted through influencer live broadcasts. Additionally, on-site marketing for the bid to host the 2030 Busan Expo was carried out through the Busan Expo promotional pavilion, attracting the attention of Kazakh government officials, business representatives, and exhibition visitors.

Along with this, KOTRA is collaborating with SATU, a local online distribution network with over 12 million products, and operating a Korean product pavilion on the KOTRA B2B online platform BuyKorea to conduct online marketing for participating companies.

From the 22nd, one-on-one online export consultations will be held for three weeks between 100 buyers discovered by all KOTRA trade centers in the CIS region and participating companies, targeting CIS regions beyond Kazakhstan.

Lee Jung-hoon, head of KOTRA's CIS regional headquarters, said, "We will actively support the diversification of the CIS export market for our SMEs and mid-sized companies facing difficulties due to the Ukraine crisis," and added, "We will continuously discover opportunities for Korean companies to enter Central Asia through collaboration with other trade centers within the CIS, centered on Kazakhstan."

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