Global Mobile Vision 2014 Opens in September

Korea’s best mobile business platform, the Global Mobile Vision 2014, opens from Sept. 17 to 19 at KINTEX. Hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), and organized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), KINTEX, and The Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences (KICS), Asia’s biggest mobile show will be inviting 180 companies from all over the world including Orange, Softbank, Sprint, and Huawei to demonstrate Korea’s advanced mobile technology.

GMV first started in 2008, with a steady growth of about 1,000 export consultations every year. Quickly reflecting the current needs in ICT, it has become one of the most trustworthy mobile business events in the global market in a considerably short period of time.

This year’s exhibition provides a comprehensive package for mobile business with an exhibition, a conference, a start-up competition, and seminars for developers. All aspects of the mobile industry expanded to platform, application, solution, IoT, cloud, big data, smart devices, telecommunication devices and solutions, and games will be displayed. With discussions hosted by Kakao, Baidu, and Google+, the three top mobile companies of Korea, China, and the U.S., respectively, GMV will be providing the agenda for a new mobile industry. Also, it will hold startup supporting programs such as “I am Global Venture 2014,” a platform to introduce startup companies to the global market.

Startup companies will receive an ample amount of attention with a startup competition, a special section in the exhibition, and consulting sessions. Moreover, this event will be carried onto “K-tech Silicon Valley” in the U.S., which will be a great chance to demonstrate the advanced technology of Korea to the world.

Kwon Jung-heon, the leader of KOTRA's IT business, said, “In 2013, Internet usage through mobile surpassed Internet usage through PC, and the usage of the Internet by people in their 50s and 60s, which always recorded the lowest usage of the Internet, is at an all time high, proving that the main trend of IT is moving towards mobile.” He added, “This event, which will present the direction for Korea to become the greatest mobile country, will serve as the bridge to 'K-Tech in Silicon Valley,' and take one step forward to becoming Mobile World Congress of Korea.”

Last October, MSIP announced the mid-to-long term strategy for ICT and software R&D. It forecast the software industry as the main method of realizing a creative economy which can lead the economic growth and creation of new jobs, so it is actively making policies to develop the related industries. GMV 2014 is being held as one of the methods to develop the mobile industry to show the world the remarkable mobile technology that Korea possesses.

GMV 2014 is also the first exhibition to be held under the supervision of the new CEO Lim Chang-yuel, the former governor of Gyeonggi province. As of September this year, Lim became the sixth CEO of KINTEX. Starting his career in public office in 1980, he served as the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (now known as MOTIE) and the deputy prime minister of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, now known as the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF). A native of Goyang City, he is one of the main reasons for placing KINTEX in Goyang City.

Lim’s anticipation for this exhibition is especially high. With the successful launch of this year’s GMV, he hopes to attract Mobile World Congress (MWC), a convention which has been held in Barcelona, Spain for 13 years. It is a major global event with more than five trillion won in economic benefits. Spain’s contract with MWC will end in 2018, and Korea is one of the great candidates to become the next host country, since it has already made itself one of the strongest IT nations.

Lim said, “In order to attract MWC to Korea, we need to emphasize our strength as the top nation for mobile technology, and I hope to find the solution from GMV 2014.”