Kang Kyung-sung, who previously served as the First and Second Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and as the President’s Secretary for Industrial Policy, took office as CEO & President of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) on November 11. In his inaugural speech, Kang expressed a strong commitment to KOTRA’s mission to transform Korea into one of the world’s top five export nations, an investment hub and a global trade powerhouse.
At the inauguration ceremony held at KOTRA’s headquarters in Secho-gu, Seoul, President Kang announced major management policies and innovation direction, emphasizing the agency's role and responsibility as a global business infrastructure.
The new president suggested KOTRA serving as, "Beacon of Korea's export growth," adding "We should discover and grow new subjects, items, and markets for exports in order to advance Korea into one of the word's top five exporters." To this end, he called for continuous support for the entire export process, including market research, buyer discovery, and grievance resolution, and providing specialized export support service to expand exports of strategic industries such as nuclear power plants, biotechnology, defense, and services.
In addition, he emphasized that KOTRA needs to be an agile strategic monitor, remaining vigilant about risks and opportunities in overseas markets. He suggested actively devising strategies and pursuing projects to make the rise of the Global South and major countries’ investments in advanced industries become beneficial for Korean companies.
Furthermore, the new president emphasized that the agency's role is to attract foreign technology, capital, talent and resources to Korea, thereby strengthening the nation’s economic and industrial global competitiveness. He vowed to make the agency "a steppingstone to enhance the nation’s competitiveness" by contributing to advancing the national industrial ecosystem to the world's top class.
Additionally, President Kang proposed the use of generative artificial intelligence and the digitalization of support projects to better assist Korean companies as a leading digital trade and investment organization. He also mentioned that KOTRA’s network of overseas business centers serve as global business infrastructure, available to all companies, government ministries and public organizations. He urged creating synergies by actively responding to demand for collaboration.
Meanwhile, the new president of KOTRA entered public office through the National Higher Civil Service Examination (29th) and served in key positions in the Ministry of Industry, including: Director of Nuclear Industry Policy; Director of Petroleum Industry; Director of Trade and Investment; Director of Industrial Policy; Director of Energy. Recently, he led the implementation of national affairs as President’s Secretary for Industrial Policy in the current government. He has also served as the First and Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry, a position he held for the first time since the establishment of the Ministry. He is recognized as a policy expert across industries and energy fields.
Source : Invest KOREA (2024.11.11.)