SME Administration Holds '2017 Excellent SME Marketing Fair' at KINTEX

A “marketing festival” is being held to bring together excellent products from Korea’s representative small and medium-sized enterprises and open up opportunities for entering domestic and international markets.

The Small and Medium Business Administration (Administrator Joo Young-seop) announced that it will hold the '2017 Excellent SME Marketing Fair' from June 15 to 17 at KINTEX in Ilsan to extensively promote excellent SME products and expand sales channels.

This event will be held on a scale of 270 companies and 350 exhibition booths, and various programs have been prepared to resolve the difficulties small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face in securing sales channels and to raise consumer awareness of SME products.

Ahead of this Excellent SME Marketing Fair, the Small and Medium Business Administration also held a contest for 'Hidden Star Products' from SMEs that will lead Korea. The photo shows the "Sunflower IoT Smart Mobile," a new concept baby product from Conis Co., Ltd. It combines an electronically operated mobile for newborns with an IoT CCTV camera that utilizes a smartphone.

The exhibition, where you can see excellent products from small and medium-sized enterprises at a glance, consists of a total of eight exhibition halls, including the Household Goods Hall, Furniture & Interior Hall, Industrial IT Hall, and Beauty & Fashion Hall, and anyone can experience them firsthand. In addition, we facilitate entry into distribution networks through a 'purchasing consultation meeting' inviting representatives from major domestic and international distribution channels from a total of about 80 companies.

In particular, we plan to expand export opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by exhibiting lifestyle consumer goods as our main products, targeting overseas distribution buyers (about 20 companies) who prefer 'Hallyu products.' This year, in cooperation with 21 private distributors, we will designate the IMSTARS Week (June 12–18) and focus on creating a simultaneous marketing boom.

In addition, a contest was held to select 'Hidden Star Products' for small and medium-sized enterprises that will lead Korea. Out of a total of 187 companies that participated in the preliminary round, five were selected following a first round of document evaluation and a second round of evaluation by a product testing group. These products include a window cleaning robot, an IoT mobile, sprinkleable powdered soybean paste, a DIY fan, and Dama-dream.

An official from the SME Administration stated, "Using this event as a stepping stone, we plan to work to improve public perception of innovative SME products, while joining forces with private organizations to actively pioneer a path to vigorously expand into the global market."