By Dr. Jeffrey I. Kim
Recently Kwon Pyung-oh assumed the presidency of the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Kwon started his government career at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) in the early 1980s.
At the office-assuming ceremony held April 2, President Kwon's inaugural address inspired many attendees. KOTRA focuses on FDI attraction while the Foreign Investment Ombudsman specializes in resolving foreign investors' grievances. So I attended the ceremony.
From early on, Kwon got himself involved in the work related to the expansion of KOTRA activities. Owing to his strenuous efforts, KOTRA undertook a new mission of promoting foreign direct investment. He continued working at the ministry until he became assistant minister of international trade and investment.
He was finally promoted to ambassador to Saudi Arabia where he served for about two-and-a-half years starting November 2015. Impressed by his professional performance, foreign investors may have high hopes for and great expectations of President Kwon.
With his experience, President Kwon can figure out what KOTRA should do henceforth. KOTRA is a huge organization with 127 overseas offices scattered around 86 countries. Its global networking capability is formidable.
President Kwon can quickly catch the four organizational issues for KOTRA _ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats through a simple "SWOT" analysis. He is one of the very few people in Korea who understand KOTRA's potential capability and weaknesses. He knows how to utilize KOTRA to provide support effective enough to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) advance into the global markets and to create the maximum number of quality jobs.
President Kwon disclosed his innovative policy plans and reform measures. He pledged that during his term, he would fulfill the four major tasks: (1) to support small- and medium-sized companies including middle-standing companies in such a way that they successfully advance into overseas markets; (2) to create quality jobs that are acceptable by global standards; (3) to diversify their export items as well as export markets; and (4) to explore new markets overseas.
President Kwon presented some statistics to the audience and said, "In value terms, SMEs account for only 37 percent of Korea's total exports. If this ratio is raised to 50 percent, then more than 1 million new jobs can be created."
While focusing on the support of SMEs, President Kwon seriously requested that KOTRA men follow his leadership. He wants KOTRA people to change their attitude toward their customers to meet their demands and serve them better.
To achieve these tasks, he pledged to undertake critical reform measures. They are: (1) To increase the competitive edge of KOTRA's overseas offices, 20 percent of the head positions in the overseas offices are to be filled by competent people through fair competition; (2) To help young people find jobs in other countries, KOTRA will increase the number of its foreign offices with such a mission from 24 up to 50; (3) To increase the functional effectiveness of KOTRA's customer-serving units, as many of the headquarters' staff as possible will be relocated to local as well as overseas offices.
However, we should be wary that SMEs may cause a "moral hazard" problem. We cannot afford to support all SMEs just because they are relatively smaller in size. Not all t SMEs will be successful. Their performance must be evaluated regularly. The SME support system and performance assessment criteria must be carefully designed and established.
We may learn a good lesson from the experience of German SMEs. Germany is best known for giant companies such as BMW, Siemens and BASF, etc. But it is the power of SMEs that pushes the German economy forward. Small- and medium-sized firms are collectively known as the "mittelstand." They are mostly innovative and internationally competitive. In the making of their products, they never fail to use the best material. German workers have a good reputation for hard work and faithfulness.
The role of SMEs in selecting proper technology with ease, swiftly diversifying products and overseas markets, and creating quality jobs is globally recognized. Korea desperately needs to support SMEs to create jobs and promote exports. We all look forward to successful leadership by the new KOTRA head.
Dr. Jeffrey I. Kim (ickim@skku.ac.kr), former foreign investment ombudsman, is a professor emeritus at Sungkyunkwan University. He earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago and taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the American University, Washington, D.C.
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At the office-assuming ceremony held April 2, President Kwon's inaugural address inspired many attendees. KOTRA focuses on FDI attraction while the Foreign Investment Ombudsman specializes in resolving foreign investors' grievances. So I attended the ceremony.
From early on, Kwon got himself involved in the work related to the expansion of KOTRA activities. Owing to his strenuous efforts, KOTRA undertook a new mission of promoting foreign direct investment. He continued working at the ministry until he became assistant minister of international trade and investment.
He was finally promoted to ambassador to Saudi Arabia where he served for about two-and-a-half years starting November 2015. Impressed by his professional performance, foreign investors may have high hopes for and great expectations of President Kwon.
With his experience, President Kwon can figure out what KOTRA should do henceforth. KOTRA is a huge organization with 127 overseas offices scattered around 86 countries. Its global networking capability is formidable.
President Kwon can quickly catch the four organizational issues for KOTRA _ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats through a simple "SWOT" analysis. He is one of the very few people in Korea who understand KOTRA's potential capability and weaknesses. He knows how to utilize KOTRA to provide support effective enough to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) advance into the global markets and to create the maximum number of quality jobs.
President Kwon disclosed his innovative policy plans and reform measures. He pledged that during his term, he would fulfill the four major tasks: (1) to support small- and medium-sized companies including middle-standing companies in such a way that they successfully advance into overseas markets; (2) to create quality jobs that are acceptable by global standards; (3) to diversify their export items as well as export markets; and (4) to explore new markets overseas.
President Kwon presented some statistics to the audience and said, "In value terms, SMEs account for only 37 percent of Korea's total exports. If this ratio is raised to 50 percent, then more than 1 million new jobs can be created."
While focusing on the support of SMEs, President Kwon seriously requested that KOTRA men follow his leadership. He wants KOTRA people to change their attitude toward their customers to meet their demands and serve them better.
To achieve these tasks, he pledged to undertake critical reform measures. They are: (1) To increase the competitive edge of KOTRA's overseas offices, 20 percent of the head positions in the overseas offices are to be filled by competent people through fair competition; (2) To help young people find jobs in other countries, KOTRA will increase the number of its foreign offices with such a mission from 24 up to 50; (3) To increase the functional effectiveness of KOTRA's customer-serving units, as many of the headquarters' staff as possible will be relocated to local as well as overseas offices.
However, we should be wary that SMEs may cause a "moral hazard" problem. We cannot afford to support all SMEs just because they are relatively smaller in size. Not all t SMEs will be successful. Their performance must be evaluated regularly. The SME support system and performance assessment criteria must be carefully designed and established.
We may learn a good lesson from the experience of German SMEs. Germany is best known for giant companies such as BMW, Siemens and BASF, etc. But it is the power of SMEs that pushes the German economy forward. Small- and medium-sized firms are collectively known as the "mittelstand." They are mostly innovative and internationally competitive. In the making of their products, they never fail to use the best material. German workers have a good reputation for hard work and faithfulness.
The role of SMEs in selecting proper technology with ease, swiftly diversifying products and overseas markets, and creating quality jobs is globally recognized. Korea desperately needs to support SMEs to create jobs and promote exports. We all look forward to successful leadership by the new KOTRA head.
Dr. Jeffrey I. Kim (ickim@skku.ac.kr), former foreign investment ombudsman, is a professor emeritus at Sungkyunkwan University. He earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago and taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the American University, Washington, D.C.
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