<YU students who helped sign export contracts for small and medium businesses to the North American market>
(from left to right: Jung Ji-won, Seok Hye-ran, Hwang Sung-hwan, Kim Tae-hoon)
YU students played a key role for signing exports contracts to the North American market by regional small and medium companies. It was a massive contract amounting to 750,000 US dollars.
Key members for winning the export contracts were Hwang Sung-hwan (25), a senior in the School of Business, and Kim Tae-hoon (25), Jung Ji-won (23) and Seok Hye-ran (23), who are all seniors in the School of International Economics and Business. Together with Roser (CEO Kim I-haeng) and Feroof (CEO Park Seo-jeong), which are both local companies specializing in roof materials manufacturing, they attended the '2015 International Roofing Expo' held in New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States for three days from the 24th to 26th, where they signed export contracts worth a total of 750,000 dollars. Roser signed a 400,000 dollar deal with 'Atlantpacific', a roof materials manufacturing and distribution company located in San Francisco, US, and Feroof signed a 350,000 dollar contract with METSTAR based in Canada. The 'International Roof Expo', which began in 2004, is one of the world's largest roofing and construction material expos in the world joined by the US, Canada, and Central and South American countries. This year, there were 1,100 booths operated by over 400 companies and attracted over 10,000 visitors.
<YU students signed an export contract with 'METSTAR' of Canada by helping Feroof, a local company.>
Students who participated in this expo carried out pre-marketing for participating companies three months prior to the expo on behalf of Roser and Feroof. Students not only studied and made analyses to understand the products, but also made necessary preparations needed for marketing such as overseas market surveys and obtaining buyer lists to participate in the expo. It was said that their skills were as good as any other person currently working in the industry.
Roser Executive Director Kim Jung-taek said, "We were able to successfully complete this expo thanks to the knowledge, experience and passionate activities of college supporter students," and added, "We thank the students for their great deal of help and if we have the opportunity, we hope to continue to build a cooperative relationship with YU."
Their achievement was not made overnight. They are agents of the YU 'global trade expert promotion (GTEP) project team' and 'Gyeongbuk PRIDE product support center' college supporters (Jung Ji-won, Seok Hye-ran), and continuously worked on their capacities as trade experts.
In particular, Hwang Sung-hwan and Kim Tae-hoon are global trade experts under the YU GTEP project team possessing proficient foreign language skills and expert trade knowledge. They are practically prepared global trade experts. They have been active as agents of the 8th GTEP project team and gained various knowledge and experience in trade. In just the past year, including three overseas expos such as the '2014 Dubai Middle East Confectionery Expo', they participated in a total of five expos and gained expertise by working in the frontlines of corporate exports.
Kim Tae-hoon, who helped with the contract for Feroof at this expo, said, "By participating in overseas expos with current employees of companies, I was able to learn about a lot of practical knowledge that is not available at school," and added, "Based on such experience and knowledge, I want to become a trade expert that helps small and medium companies having unique technologies enter foreign markets."
Meanwhile, YU was recognized as an incubation center for young trade experts and have continuously pursued government-funded projects from 2002. Recently, it was selected for the 'regional specialized young trade expert fostering project' hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea International Trade Association and will continue the 'GTEP project team 9-11' up until 2018. In 2002, YU began with the Ministry of Industry and Resource TI (Trade Incubator) project and will thus foster young trade experts for 16 years until March 2018.
