SME Sector Steps Up Global Cooperation...Seeks Solutions for Overseas Expansion in Tokyo

[Financial News] South Korean SME businesspeople are gathering in Tokyo, Japan, to explore strategies for entering global markets and ways to cooperate across industries. Following last year’s efforts to lay the groundwork for cooperation between Korean and Japanese SMEs, this year’s focus is on expanding concrete business opportunities by sharing successful overseas expansion cases and on-the-ground experience.
 According to industry sources on the 15th, the Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) will hold the 2026 Baekdu Forum on the 19th at the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba hotel in Tokyo, Japan, with about 40 SME representatives in attendance.
 This year’s forum will open under the theme “SME Globalization Strategies and 16 Years of Baekdu Forum Achievements.” SME representatives from various industries will then discuss ways to cooperate to enter global markets.
 The first session will bring together leading exporters, SMEs that have recently begun expanding overseas, and cooperatives pursuing overseas expansion to share success stories and on-the-ground experience. Participants will review examples of exchange and cooperation between the Korean and Japanese concrete industries and discuss support measures needed for overseas expansion.
 The forum is also significant because it aims to turn the Korea-Japan SME exchanges that have continued since last year into practical cooperation. Last November, KBIZ held a Korea-Japan SME Economic Forum in Tokyo with Japan’s National Federation of Small Business Associations, discussing examples of industrial cooperation between the two countries and global growth strategies. An exhibition featuring products from 12 South Korean SMEs was also held at the time to explore opportunities to enter the Japanese market.
 These exchanges are leading to cooperation across industries. A meeting of the Korea-Japan Ready-Mixed Concrete Associations was held in April this year, while the second Korea-Japan SME Economic Forum, held in Seoul last month, discussed ways to address shared issues, including artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation and entry into global markets.
 The second session will review the Baekdu Forum’s achievements over the past 16 years and explore its future role and direction for development amid a changing global environment. A key task is expected to be finding ways to turn the overseas networks built so far into actual business opportunities for SMEs.
 The Baekdu Forum began in 2010 in Yanji, China, with 25 participants, including SME businesspeople and academic experts. It has since expanded its host locations to Vietnam and Japan, developing into a forum for discussing SMEs’ overseas expansion and exchange and cooperation.
[email protected] Kang Kyung-rae Reporter