530 Global Buyers, Including Lonza and JD.com, Gather for "Export Boom Up Korea" Opening

1,400 Korean companies to participate... 4,500 export consultations
$200 million contract target... More than half of participating companies to be regional businesses

Kang Gamchan, head of the Trade and Investment Office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (center), performs at the opening ceremony of “2026 Export Boom Up Korea” at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on the 21st. Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

A Korea's largest comprehensive export consultation event will bring together 530 global buyers, including Lonza and JD.com, and 1,400 Korean companies. Over two days, the government aims to facilitate 4,500 export consultations and help secure export contracts worth about $200 million. It has allocated more than half of the slots for participating companies to businesses based outside the Seoul metropolitan area, supporting their efforts to expand overseas sales channels.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it will hold "2026 Export Boom Up Korea," Korea's largest comprehensive export consultation event, at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, for two days starting October 21.

This year's event will be attended by 530 global companies, including global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza, Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, and Mitsubishi Electric, as well as 1,400 promising Korean companies. During the event, organizers aim to hold about 4,500 export consultations and facilitate 100 memorandums of understanding (MOUs). The ministry has set a target of about $200 million in export contracts.

Launched in 2015, Export Boom Up Korea is a comprehensive export consultation event that invites overseas buyers to Korea and connects them with Korean companies for one-on-one business consultations. This year, the event is focused on expanding participation by companies outside the Seoul metropolitan area, supporting emerging growth industries such as biotechnology and consumer goods, and linking the event with exhibitions nationwide and regional consultation events.

In particular, in line with the government's "Five Mega-Regions and Three Special Self-Governing Provinces" growth strategy, more than 50% of all participating companies are based outside the Seoul metropolitan area. The aim is to expand access to consultations with overseas buyers beyond the Seoul metropolitan area and broaden the base of export companies across the country.

Support will also be strengthened for emerging growth sectors such as K-Bio and K-Consumer Goods. About 360 global buyers in fields including biotechnology, cosmetics, and food will participate. Major companies such as Lonza and JD.com will also explore potential new business relationships and partnerships with Korean companies.

Export consultations will continue beyond the event venue. The event will be linked with 11 major industrial exhibitions nationwide, and online consultations will also be held. In Daegu and North Chungcheong Province, "on-site export consultation events" will help local companies meet overseas buyers in person.

This year's event will also be held in conjunction with M.AX CON, a business and technology exchange event for manufacturing artificial intelligence (AI). The M.AX CON event on October 21 will be attended by international and Korean experts, including Raffaello D'Andrea, a professor at ETH Zurich, Park Min-woo, president of Hyundai Motor Group, and representatives from IBM, Qualcomm, and POSCO. They will discuss ways to introduce AI into manufacturing operations and foster collaboration, focusing on AI factories, industrial robots and physical AI, and autonomous manufacturing.

Kang Gamchan, head of the Trade and Investment Office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "With the historic era of $1 trillion in exports coming into view, we will continue to expand the base of exports so that companies across more industries and regions can enter global markets and make 'exports for everyone' a reality. We hope this Export Boom Up Korea will give Korean companies an opportunity to find new markets and business partners, and give overseas buyers a chance to discover competitive Korean companies and products."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.