The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held a trade show on an unprecedented scale for Boom-Up Korea Week 2024 (“Boom-Up”) through October 22–23 at KINTEX in Ilsan, with the nationwide export promotion event now entering its second week.
Launched over a period of two weeks from October 16–31, this year’s Boom-Up integrates 20 industrial exhibitions nationwide in conjunction with trade shows and introduces the new “Boom-Up Week” format for the first time through collaboration with Korea’s four major exhibition venues and key industry associations. Global buyers coming to Korea from around the world are provided catered services in terms of information and transportation. For this historic Boom-Up, KOTRA’s Korea Business Centers (KBCs) served as promotion channels for drawing 1,200 overseas buyers from 62 countries, including GM, Panasonic, and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as well as 3,000 promising export companies and roughly 200,000 visitors.
Exhibition booths for future mobility, nuclear power, bio, and other advanced industries took up center stage, showcasing high-performance hydrogen-electric hybrid concept cars (Hyundai Motor), world’s first commercial wireless communications and information systems for nuclear reactors (Ilshin EDI), and Korea’s first card payment platform for trade settlements (VISA).
In addition, visitors were able to experience a medical tourism promotion booth, free-trade zone (FTZ) business booth, and a one-stop export booth for bid participation assistance. MOTIE Minister Dukgeun Ahn visited the trade show booths to encourage export consultations and toured the local tourism program lounge introducing tours around Korea. The Boom-Up saw the inking of USD 235 million worth of export deals and memorandums of understanding (MOUs), the total outcome expected to reach $300 million considering additional contracts.
In light of the recent global popularity of Korean culture, the Boom-Up is accommodating international visitors via diverse bleisure (blend of business and leisure) programs with tourist vouchers for lodging, local tours, and K-pop performances.
Meanwhile, an MOU was signed among KINTEX, COEX, EXCO, BEXCO, KOTRA, Korea International Trade Association (KITA), and Korea Tourism Organization with an aim to nurture Korea’s exhibition industry for launching global-scale exhibitions like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) or Mobile World Congress (MWC), as Korea is soon expected to rank among the world’s top five exporting countries. The Korean government will start the process of selecting applicants for this project at the end of 2024 to gear up efforts to activate a comprehensive support system for exhibition planning and consulting, attracting startups and buyers, launching sidelines events, and integrating tourism programs in step with global trends beginning next year.