First-ever KOTRA support agreement with a provincial government

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency has agreed to actively support exports from Gangwon Province. The photo shows a business consultation session in Vietnam held by a Wonju overseas market development delegation.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency has agreed to actively support exports from Gangwon Province. The photo shows a business consultation session in Vietnam held by a Wonju overseas market development delegation.

Gangwon Province has signed an agreement with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency to boost its exports, becoming the first provincial government in the country to do so.

Gangwon Province, its affiliated economic promotion agency and KOTRA signed a mutual cooperation MOU on Thursday, the province said, to advance a support project for establishing AI-based customized export strategies.

The project aims to strengthen the competitiveness of exporting companies by providing large numbers of firms with AI-generated, customized export strategy reports.

The support will target exporting companies and firms new to overseas sales within the province, with a plan to provide a total of 500 customized export strategy reports tailored by company, product and country.

"This agreement was prepared to reflect the need for market diversification identified in our recently released report on first-half trade trends, as well as feedback from companies on the ground," said Shin Won-cheol, vice governor for economic affairs. "We will actively support companies in the province so they can identify promising markets based on data and establish more sophisticated strategies for entering overseas markets."

The initiative places particular emphasis on diversifying export markets. Gangwon Province's exports in the first half of this year rose 1.3 percent from a year earlier to $1.6 billion, marking the province's best-ever first-half performance. This marked the third consecutive year of growth in the province's exports. However, performance has varied widely by country and product. Traditional major markets such as the US, Taiwan and Japan have lagged, while emerging markets including China, India, Europe and Latin America have driven growth. This has increased the need to help individual companies identify promising markets and diversify their export destinations.

Gangwon Province had previously supported 80 exporting and export-aspiring companies in the province through an overseas online marketing support project. The project helped them enter online platforms and carry out marketing for overseas expansion. However, there had been widespread feedback that the province lacked the empirical market analysis data needed to select promising markets and establish country-specific entry strategies. This prompted it to seek cooperation with KOTRA.

The agreement came about after KOTRA proposed the project to the province in July. KOTRA offered to provide companies with customized export strategy reports using its "AI Export Information" system. The system combines data from its overseas trade offices and 20 types of verified paid export statistics with generative AI.


abc@heraldcorp.com