Target: Globe
South Korea is developing its water industry with ambitions towards the global market by constituting a “waterwork technology development convention.”
The Ministry of Environment (ME) held the establishment ceremony of a “waterworks technology development convention” on April 14 at EXCO in Daegu.
In accordance with the convention, the local governments will let South Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) use water purification plants as a “test bed” where the Korean Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) will verify new products of the SMEs, the Ministry of Environment (ME) said.
The institutions participating in the convention will preferentially group buy the SMEs’ products that have passed a verification process, the ME said.
The ME expects to replace foreign products that the local governments are using with the South Korean SMEs’ products, providing stable sales routes to the SMEs, it said.
The ME said it also expects to enhance South Korea's ability for SMEs to enter overseas markets through reinforcing their competence with the convention.
Currently, 70 percent of South Korean SMEs doing the water business have a 4.5 percent export participation rate, employing less than 10 people, whilst the global water business market grows by 4 percent annually, the ME said.
Hwang Suk-tae, head of the waterworks policy sector of the ME, said the “waterworks technology development convention” will be “the basement for water industry enterprises entering the global market.”