o Export Contracts Worth $9.3 Million, Positive Public Consensus on Korean Products on the Back of Korean Wave 

The province’s trade promotion delegates, nine SMEs, organized to tackle the Southeast Asian market that is experiencing a rapid growth of economy and demand realized pleasing export results from Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines. 

Gyeonggi-do ran an export-promotion project to help companies from the province visit Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, etc.) and make entry in to the new market between December 2 and 10. Companies handling commodities selected by the province to have superior marketability in this particular region completed consultations worth $45.75million and $9.32 million of them were finalized as contracts. 

Most countries in Southeast Asia were once under the control of China and/or Japan in their history. The region’s market is mainly controlled by the Chinese immigrants, and the luxury goods market by Japan. 

The province selected product groups for which new demand were arising in the region, and helped a number of companies reach buyers in collaboration with KOTRA for primary consultations via emails. It facilitated export contract finalizations through visits as well as gaining control of the consumer market. 

This region shares the similar history with Korea, and the people from the former admires the latter’s legacy of rapid economic development. Furthermore, Korean Wave initiated through popularity of TV series and movies from Korea has heightened the image of the nation in the people’s mind in the Southeast Asian countries. Korean products are given the best conditions for market excursion than ever. 

INB is the company that developed Virus Killer in collaboration with academia and research sectors. The buyers from Thailand where many had suffered due to avian flu in the past expressed much interest to result in export contract worth $3 million. The future of this company’s performance in the export market seems bright. 

Ahrong Eltech, a massage equipment manufacturer, was positively responded to by local distributors of the Southeast Asian countries reflecting heightened interest on health and beauty by the people in upper-middle classes. 

A provincial official stated, “Gyeonggi-do plans to continue its aggressive marketing activities featuring its high quality goods to better the stand in the Southeast Asian market currently dominated by China and Japan.”