KITA networking event with ambassadors from ASEAN countries

Ambassadors from ten ASEAN countries discussed avenues of deepening bilateral cooperative relations with Korean companies.

The Korea International Trade Association (Chairman: Christopher Koo) invited ten heads of diplomatic missions from ASEAN countries and held a networking event on May 19th at the Grand Walker-Hill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul.

The networking event was participated by Christopher Koo, KITA Chairman and Gwan-seop Lee, KITA Vice Chairman and CEOs from companies holding KITA corporate chairmanship, including SeAh Steel, Exiqon and Meta Biomed. They engaged in business networking and discussions on future cooperation with ten heads of diplomatic missions from ASEAN countries in Korea - Laos, Myanmar, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Chairman Koo mentioned during the event, “Korea and ASEAN sought development as a single community over the past half a century and managed to turn crisis into opportunities” and expressed gratitude by mentioning, “Well-functioning Korea - ASEAN cooperation can be materialized and maintained by the contributions made by the heads of diplomatic missions through vigorously engaging in various types of activities and investing efforts to forge closer friendly ties with Korea.” Chairman Koo also said, “We will not spare effort to promote greater exchanges between the two sides and support more active economic cooperation with the ASEAN region.”

Over the past ten years, bilateral trade between Korea and the ASEAN has gradually increased, which expanded from 124.9 billion dollars in 2011 to 176.5 billion dollars in 2021. This year has already posted the largest bilateral trade yet with two-way trade reaching 71.6 billion dollars as of April.

Hyeon-chol Kim, the Head of the International Affairs Group at KITA, said, “We plan to open a wide array of events during the second half of this year, including a commemorative ceremony celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Korea and Vietnam, Korea ？ Mekong business forum, a business meeting between companies from Korea and the ASEAN and dispatching an economic delegation to the ASEAN.”