The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) supported the participation of 156 small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners in the 23rd World Korean Business Convention.
The World Korean Business Convention is an event hosted annually by the Overseas Koreans Association, and is a global business convention in which overseas Korean businesses and domestic companies participate. The 23rd World Korean Business Convention will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA from the 17th to the 20th (local time).
During the same period, approximately 350 companies and 500 buyers will participate in the corporate exhibition (April 17-20), and the global Korean business network owned by the Overseas Koreans Association will play a role in supporting the overseas expansion of domestic companies.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected 156 small and medium-sized businesses with global competitiveness in the beauty, food, and medical device sectors and supported them with product promotion, exhibition, and corporate promotion booths. In a situation where uncertainty in the global economy is increasing due to the recent strengthening of protectionism, including global tariff measures, it is expected that the overseas Korean business network will be actively utilized as a platform for domestic exporting small and medium-sized businesses to overcome the global economic crisis.
Minister Oh Young-joo attended the opening ceremony of the corporate exhibition on the morning of the 17th together with the hosts, including Director of the Overseas Koreans Administration Lee Sang-deok, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs Kim Ki-moon, and other key domestic figures, including Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee Lee Seok-ki and Consul General of Atlanta, and visited the booths of small business owners and SMEs participating in the exhibition to encourage the participating companies.
On the afternoon of the 17th, Minister Oh Young-joo met with Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), at a reception hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and expressed the will for continued Korea-U.S. economic cooperation even under the new U.S. administration, while requesting the SBA’s interest in and support for Korean companies operating in the U.S. In addition, he mentioned that he hopes to expand policy exchanges and cooperation between the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea and the SBA of the U.S. in the future.
In addition, we visited a cosmetics store run by a local Korean company, Missi Cosmetics (CEO Jo Mi-sook), looked at major cosmetics products sold in the U.S. market, and checked out trends in the K-beauty market.
Afterwards, Minister Oh Young-joo attended the opening ceremony and welcome dinner of the event, attended by key figures from both Korea and the United States, and read the congratulatory address of the Acting President. In his congratulatory address, Acting President Han Duck-soo emphasized, “I congratulate you on the hosting of the event. If production, consumption, investment, movement of personnel, and establishment of supply chains are actively carried out as the slogan of this event, ‘Leap to the Korea-US Economic Zone,’ suggests, the horizon of the Korean economy will be greatly expanded,” and promised, “The government will not spare policy and institutional support to support export companies.”
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