BEYSAD organized a visit to South Korea on March 19 to 25, 2016. A group of 15 individuals visited GM Korea, LG Electronics, Hyundai, Posco, 3M, and Samsung Innovation Museum and had bilateral discussions with the organization of KOTRA (Korea Trade Center). Moreover, a cooperation agreement was signed with KEA (Korea Electronics Industry Association).

Burak Özaydemir, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of BEYSAD, said the following on the trip: “We picked South Korea to visit because the country is a good example in terms of our industry and industrialization. The scope was to observe the technological development in South Korea as well as Asia and how they perform business and to conduct bilateral discussions beneficial for our members. In this regard, with the impressive businesses and innovation centers we visited, the letter of intention signed with the Electronics Industry Association (KEA) and B2B discussions, we think we have successfully completed our program. We believe that the industrial complementary factors and historical friendship between Turkey and South Korea carry a stronger cooperation potential. We would like to thank the Korean Trade Investment Incentive Agency (KOTRA) for their great support to the organization of our trip as well as BEYSAD members for their valuable participation.”

The trip was participated by BEYSAD Board Member Hamdi Erem from Erta Elektromekanik; BEYSAD Board Member Sefa Böyet from Akplas; Hatice Altuner from Assan Aluminyum; Tolga Başoğlu and Gökhan Yıldırım from Başoğlu Kablo; Tufan Deniz from Murat Civata; Bilgin Semiz from Semiz Elektronik; Hakkı Bayraktar from Sipil Aş.; Aydın Ersoy and Ozan Tumba from Borçelik; Can Yalmaç and Özgür Atlıhan from Telas Lastik; Mert Danişger from KOTRA; and BEYSAD Corporate Communications Manager Ayşegül Koç.

The trip started off with a 10-hour flight to Incheon Airport, and then to Busan after a 1-hour flight.

Busanis S. Korea’s second biggest city and a beautiful port city. It is very lively with a picturesque coast. Busan hosts the International Film Festival and several festivals and organizations throughout the year.

“We have your names in our hearts with love
We have your names in our land with gratitude”
For the immortal memory of the soldiers who lost their livest under the UN Forces flag during the Korean War…

The United Nations Memorial Cemetery is also located in this city. It is the only cemetery founded by the UN. This holy ground was dedicated to world peace and freedom. The 16 countries that sent soldiers to the Korean War, supported by the UN are the USA, Britain, Turkey, Canada, Australia, France, Holland, New Zealand, S. Africa, Colombia, Greece, Thailand, Ethiopia, Philippines, Belgium, Luxembourg. The Memorial Cemetery has 2300 martyr graves, 462 of whom were from Turkey. The War Monument in the Memorial Cemetery has the names of 40.896 UN soldiers who lost their lives during the Korean War (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953).

During our visit, we had the chance to visit a number of companies and meet several individuals and institutions. We were welcome with much hospitability throughout our visit and we saw smiling friendly faces in all the factories. Following short introductory videos and opening speeches, Chairperson Burak Özaydemir on behalf of BEYSAD took the stage and gave presentations and brief thank you speeches. Next, the respective individuals were given plaques and then, we toured factories. We observed that each of them were well prepared for our visit and had solid organizations.

On the first day of our visit, we first of all visited GM Korea factory where Chevrolet cars were manufactured.

Next, we visited LG Electronics factory and showrooms, which makes industrial air conditioners and white appliances. It was easily noticeable that their appliances had high added value and we were happy to see Arçelik in the production area.

Hyundaifactory was very impressive with its business volume, area size, and systematic in the factory. It is located by the port and thousands of vehicles waiting beside the vessel to be loaded were eye-catching with their volume. The location that has the highest number of production volume in a single place is Korea. The overall total is 5m, and the volume of the respective business is 1.5m.

Poscowas like a big city on its own. Its volume, area and technology utilized obviously created a difference. As soon as we entered the presentation hall, the big Posco city model that welcomed us and the presentation in Turkish were very impressive. A total raw steel production capacity of 18 Mio T/year; the entire POSCO; total (Puhang + Gwangyang (5 BOF) raw steel production capacity of 42 Mio T/year… In 2015, a total production of 38 Mio T was achieved.

Samsung Innovation Museum was also very impressive. In parallel to their historical developments, we witnessed the global technological improvements that also covered other brands and we could easily see their success and development over the years.

We visited the 3M Korea factory with the great support and effort by 3M Turkey. We watched introductory presentations on first of all 3M in the world, 3M in Korea and 3M in their factory. Next, we toured their beautiful showrooms. The motto “3M products everywhere” was very accurate. Especially the part that showed in which parts of Hyundai Genesis 3M products are used was very entertaining for us.

Besides company visits, the authorities from KOTRA (Korea Trade Center) who contributed greatly to enable us to visit Korea and created the content of the organization took good care of us there on top of their contributions while we were in Turkey. The bilateral discussion program of one day was very productive. In the evening we had great time conversing and eating traditional Korean food at the reception organized for us.

On the half-day of our program, we had a meeting with KEA (Korean Electronics Industry Association) and signed a cooperation agreement. We gave each other informatory presentations focusing on cooperation, held a signature ceremony and had our photograph taken. We think that we have thus formed the bridge for future contacts of our members with Korean electronics companies. The institution has an impressive export volume of 12.5 Billion USD only in white appliances with its 800 members in the information technology and electronics industry and it also organizes the KES Fair – for our readers who might be interested, please visit www.kes.org.  

We should not forget about the contributions of YUN Turizm in making the entire organization flawless. All those visits, transfers from city to city, lunches and dinners, and most importantly cheerful and positive guide made our trip all the more entertaining and safe.

We would like to thank our shareholders KOTRA, 3M, YUN Turizm, who gave us all their support during the trip, and especially our members who were with us the whole time and hope to have more events with even more crowded groups of members.

We would also like to thank our esteemed members for their positive feedback on the trip and their appreciation and understanding during the trip.