For the provincial small and medium enterprises suffering from the high exchange rate, oil price, and raw material cost, Gyeonggi Province opened a ‘Blue-chip Product Exhibition’ in Warszawa, Poland for 3 days from June 6 to 8, which would provide them a new opportunity to explore a new market for export.

At this exhibition, 80 entrepreneurs from 49 enterprises of Gyeonggi have participated meeting with 500 potential buyers not only from Poland, but also from Rumania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary and others of the Easter Europe bloc.

Poland, who became a signatory of EU as of May 2004, has been beefing up its economic competence in many business sectors, in particular, they have achieved 5% economic growth rate last year which is known to be the highest growth rate of all the other EU member nations.

Chinese enterprises are now making a blitz into the Eastern Europe market, including Poland; therefore, it is inevitable for us to compete against China in such market.
In the Polish market, they have resulted US$2.1 billion of sales in 2002 which increased to US$4.1 billion in 2 years with 3.77%M/S in 2002 which increased to 4.64% in 2004.

Aided by a tax reduction policy which is a fruition of Poland becoming a member of EU with the investment increase of LG Electronics and the launch of SK Eurochem in the Polish market, Korean exports to Poland have surged by 45.6% exceeding US$1.1 billion of sales last year.

11% additional increase within this year will lead us to have more than US$1.3 billion of sales which would be the maximum sales to be recorded in the history of Polish export market. Thru this achievement, we will be able to secure a new market demand and a bridgehead to become a EU membership. The maximum export sales recorded in the Korean history for the Polish market was US$1.2 billion resulted in 1997 when the export of automobiles and parts/accessories of Daewoo Motors and its affiliates skyrocketed high.

Opening of a Blue-chip Product Exhibition by Gyeonggi Province is to explore the potential demand of Poland and also to find a new channel to penetrate into the other EU member nations of Mid/Eastern Europe. Compare to the year 2004, the exports to the Eastern Europe market has increased by 40% or more. Therefore, we believe that the export to such market will invigorate Korean small and medium enterprises that are currently mired in difficulties of exchange rate, oil prices and etc.
– Korea’s export to Poland is at the head of all the other Eastern Europe nations. Also, Korea is known to be the 18th importer for Poland, but the 3rd out of Asian countries following Japan and China.

In May, Gyeonggi Province opened another Blue-chip Product Exhibition in Santiago, Chile to open a new door into the South American market, resulting US$12 million of sales at the spot, which eventually accelerated exports of small and medium enterprises to the overseas market.

“We expect for a great result of this exhibition since locals are showing a great interest.” said the person from Gyeonggi Province.

Participating enterprises in the exhibition will return by the 10th.