A survey has shown that small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea are considering the United States as a key market for export expansion.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced on the 3rd that the results were derived from a survey conducted from Aug. 8 to 16 targeting 313 domestic small and medium-sized exporting corporations.
Ninety-nine percent of responding corporations said they are considering expanding exports through entering new markets. Among them, the United States (26.8%) was chosen most frequently as the target market, followed by Europe (17.9%), Japan (11.2%), and Southeast Asia (10.9%).
The survey was conducted before the conclusion of the Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations. As uncertainties in the trade environment increased due to U.S.-imposed tariff barriers and geopolitical risks, small and medium-sized enterprises identified securing new buyers and maintaining transactions with existing buyers as their top priorities.
Corporations identified challenges related to exports as finding buyers (70.9% duplicate responses), facilitating visits for consultations (55.3%), arranging visits for buyers (52.7%), and overseas certification (44.1%).
In terms of required services to expand export avenues, they mentioned finding reputable overseas buyers (78.9%), market consulting (47.0%), local market research (44.7%), and arranging consultations with buyers (35.8%).
Seventy-four point four percent of small and medium-sized enterprises responded that exports in the second half would be similar to or expanded from the current state. Positive outlooks included very expanded (5.4%), somewhat expanded (31.3%), and similar (37.7%), but some corporations also anticipated export slowdown (25.6%).
Responses indicating that they achieved their export performance targets set for the first half of the year totaled 62.3%. By industry, industrial goods (65.7%), consumer goods (59.8%), and information and communication technology (ICT) and digital services (41.4%) had the highest rates of achieving export performance targets.
KOTRA President Kang Kyung-seong noted, 'Based on the survey results, we will intensify support to scratch where corporations feel itchy, including providing market trend information for the second half, consulting for entry strategies in target markets, pinpoint consultations for discovering alternative markets, and settlement of account consultations at the end of the year.'