Small and Medium Enterprises Heading to the Middle East... Export Consultation Meetings in Saudi Arabia and UAE

Ministry of SMEs and Startups - Korea Federation of SMEs Support 20 Promising SMEs in Beauty, Food, and Consumer Goods for Middle East Expansion
20 Promising SMEs in Beauty, Food, and Consumer Goods Participate

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Federation of SMEs announced on the 25th that they will hold the 'K-Business Day in Middle East 2024' export consultation meetings on the 27th (local time) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and on the 29th in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), respectively, to support promising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) entering the Middle East market.

President Yoon Suk-yeol is meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE (Ruler of Dubai), at Zabeel Palace in Dubai during his state visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 17 last year (local time).
[Photo by Yonhap News]

This event is the first follow-up support of the 'Framework Cooperation Program' promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Saudi Ministry of Investment since last December to strengthen the entry and business support of domestic SMEs into Saudi Arabia. It is also the second follow-up measure of the economic cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the UAE Ministry of Economy under the standing of the two heads of state during President Yoon Suk-yeol's state visit to the UAE in January last year.

The export consultation meetings will feature 20 promising SMEs in the beauty, food, and consumer goods sectors, which have high demand due to the Korean Wave. They will conduct one-on-one consultations with about 140 buyers from nearby Middle Eastern regions (79 in Riyadh and 61 in Dubai).

Through prior consultations, SelbyCell, a cosmetics ingredient company, is negotiating a long-term sales contract with a distribution company in Kuwait. Ionpolis, a bathroom products manufacturer, is also preparing to sign an MOU with a UAE distributor.

In this event, a digital transformation policy for export consultation meetings will be piloted through collaboration with large corporations. The real-time interpretation feature of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S24 will be utilized to examine its applicability in related policies. Additionally, Naver's Clova OCR technology will be reviewed as a way to use business cards and consultation logs generated during the consultation process as electronic documents in the future.

Lee Dae-hee, Director of the SME Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “We will expand our entry into the Middle East in more diverse ways by utilizing the support capabilities of the public and private sectors in the future.”

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