□ Korea Eximbank (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Yong Hwan Kim) hosted the seminar entitled “Strategies to Advance into the MDB Procurement Market.” The seminar was attended by 250 officials from 117 institutions* including 93 domestic engineering companies and 5 related associations at the International Convention Hall of the Korea Federation of Banks in Myungdong on August 24.

* Participating organizations: 93 companies including Dohwa Engineering and Dasan Consultant, 5 competent associations including the International Contractors Association of Korea, 11 public institutions, 3 research institutes, and 5 universities.

○ For a special seminar program titled “Strategies to Advance into the MDB Procurement Market” Korea Eximbank invited experts from multilateral development banks to provide the latest information on MDB procurement procedures.

□ The seminar raised awareness among domestic engineering companies that overseas project participation track records, including consulting in ODA and EDCF projects, weigh heavily on the successful participation in MDB procurement projects. Also, the participants shared procurement strategies and hands-on business experience.

□ Overseas consulting is a, high value-added, labor-intensive knowledge industry with the potential to increase equipment sales and participation in construction projects. As such, developed countries are actively fostering talented HR in this field.

○ Overseas procurement markets** have steadily increased in scale to reach USD 2.1 trillion in 2010 as a result of an increase in FTAs and expansion of development assistance. Except for participation in simple construction projects however, domestic companies have not actively participated in overseas consulting projects so participation in overseas procurement markets is minimal.

**Government procurement market (OECD, USD 2 trillion), international organization market (UN and IBRD, USD 40 billion), ODA purchase market (USD 66.7 billion)

□ In order to increase participation of Korean companies in consulting projects, Korea Eximbank plans to expand EDCF grants for feasibility studies to over three times 2011 levels of KRW 6 billion to KRW 20 billion by 2015.

○ In addition, the bank will jointly promote the Knowledge Sharing Program*** with MDBs. So far, KSP had been conducted bilaterally between Korea and a developing country.

*** Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP): a Korean aid model sharing Korea’s economic development experience and expertise with developing countries.