South Chungcheong Province rallies trade agencies to expand export channels

South Chungcheong Province, which holds the top trade balance ranking in South Korea, gathered with regional export agencies Thursday to reinforce and expand its export channels.

The province hosted a "Regional Export Promotion Cooperation Meeting" at the provincial government building Thursday to explore ways for relevant agencies to collaborate in supporting local exporters.

The meeting brought together officials from the province, the Ministry of Economy and Finance's Export Plus Support Team, KOTRA's South Chungcheong support office, the Export-Import Bank of Korea's South Chungcheong regional headquarters, the South Chungcheong Economic Promotion Agency and the South Chungcheong Export Business Association. Participants shared updates on each agency's operations and projects and discussed areas for cooperation.

The Export Plus Support Team is a public-private joint organization launched in April to advance the national policy goal of achieving $1 trillion in exports. It works with local governments on export-related initiatives and helps build a foundation for regional exporters.

At the meeting, the province and the Export Plus Support Team, along with other participating agencies, shared their respective export support frameworks and discussed directions for collaboration, while also examining the needs and challenges facing exporters in the province.

The province currently runs a range of programs through the South Chungcheong Economic Promotion Agency, including overseas buyer discovery and matchmaking, participation in international exhibitions and trade fairs, overseas market development missions, overseas office operations and free trade agreement trade support.

It also commissions additional programs: an overseas market development mission for innovative companies through the South Chungcheong Technopark, an overseas branch establishment service for small and medium-sized enterprises through KOTRA, a youth trade specialist training program through Soonchunhyang University, export and import insurance premium and credit investigation support through the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), and overseas exhibition and trade fair participation support through the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

Building on the programs introduced at the meeting, the province held in-depth discussions with the Export Plus Support Team to identify joint projects and exchanged a range of ideas on how to better support local exporters.

"We will strengthen cooperation with the central government and relevant agencies to secure export channels for businesses in the province as we respond to changes in the external environment — including US tariff policy, logistics and energy instability stemming from tensions in the Middle East, and the spread of protectionism," a provincial official said. "We will continue working to identify and advance practical export support measures that businesses in the province can actually feel."

Meanwhile, the province recorded exports of $97.8 billion as of June, ranking second nationwide, driven in part by strong semiconductor exports. Its trade balance stood at $77.2 billion, the highest in the country.