HIGHLIGHTS OF 2019: Sung Gi Lee

Sung Gi Lee is the Director General of KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency), the Commercial Office of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea.

He has started his engagement and mission in KOTRA Belgrade in Serbia in the summer of 2017, following 10-year experience with the Korean agency helping businesses in developing new international partnerships, introducing Serbia for Korean investors and accessing foreign markets.

He started his career in the business sector in 2002 as Business and Process Innovation Principle Consultant in LG CNS, spending six years with the company.

He joined KOTRA in 2008, first engaging as Principle Consultant of Overseas Market, working with Korean businesses wishing to expand their work abroad. In 2011 he went to USA, serving as Deputy Director in the KOTRA New York Branch Office, where he spent four years, once again returning to his home country in 2015, acting as Director of Management Assessment.

We asked Sung Gi Lee what the highlights of 2019 were in his opinion.

– New Korean Factories in Serbia.

The most important event was opening of two Korean factories and significant upward trend in economic cooperation between our two countries. Korean company Superior Essex, member of LS Group, one of the largest suppliers of solutions for electric vehicles, opened a plant for copper wires in the City of Zrenjanin. Superior Essex invested 30 million euro ($34.1 million) in the factory that has 16,000 square meters. The new Serbian facility is one of the most energy-efficient magnet wire plants in Europe thanks to the Essex standards of sustainable development and optimized, cutting-edge production. The facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art digital technology to reach the highest standard in the application of the Industry 4.0 process. I am very proud that Serbia was able to attract technology intensive company such as Superior Essex to Zrenjanin. All employees have the salaries far above the Serbian average.

Yura opened new production plant in Leskovac, worth 40 million EUR. The new facility is among the most advanced anywhere in Europe, producing sophisticated components products for electric cars. Yura Corporation is the oldest and biggest Korean investor in Serbia. They have 6 factories: one in Rača, two in Nis and three in Leskovac.

Hankook Tire, the best tire company in Korea and the fourth best in the world, opened its marketing branch office in Belgrade that is covering 7 countries (Ex-Yugoslavia and Bulgaria).

Korean companies are hiring more than 7,500 local employees in Serbia.


MOST UNFAVOURABLE EVENT OF THE YEAR

– US – China trade war is an ongoing economic conflict between the world`s two largest national economies. This war is economically hurting both countries and not only them, also many countries in the World. Globally, foreign direct investment has slowed. Other economies have seen negative effects, Korea and Serbia as well. This war is seriously influencing the Global Value Chain, on which both countries have enjoyed the economic development for a couple of decades. Analysis conducted by Moody`s Analytics estimated that American jobs had either been lost or not created due to the trade war, especially affecting manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and retail. A few days ago, Trump announced that China and the United States had reached a tentative agreement for the "first phase" of a trade deal. However, many experts aren’t so optimistic about coming back to the same situation before.

Not only between US-China but also there are several trade related issues all over the world, like Brexit, Sanctions and the dispute between Korea and Japan about the chemical materials crucial for production of semiconductors and LEDs. The most anxious thing is that the root causes of the trade issues are the Protectionism and international political relationships which cannot be resolved in simple way.

Anyway, I really do hope that these issues will be finished in near future.

SERBIAN PUBLIC PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

– Thanks to his sports achievements, as well as the manners of one remarkable man, Novak Djokovic, with a million followers, became the first association people have of Serbia in the world. With Nikola Tesla, Novak is the most famous Serb of all time and today. I always mention Novak Djokovic to Korean businessmen visiting Serbia in order to make them feel familiar with Serbia. Especially in Korea, he is well known as an adorable sportsman because he praised the Korean tennis player Hyun Jeong after defeated him in his returning Australian Open in 2018. I witnessed the epic Wimbledon finals, and by many, one of the most exciting tennis matches of all time. The clash of giants lasted over five hours, ending with Novak Djokovic`s spectacular victory over Roger Federer. In my opinion, he is the best brand of Serbia and the most prominent promoter of your country. You should be very proud of him.


BEST MOVE OF THE GOVERNMENT

– The 2020 World Bank (WB) Doing Business List shows Serbia at 44th place among 190 countries, four higher than this year. Reforms enabled more effortless procedure in obtaining construction permits, reducing administrative taxes, and secured a more reliable power supply.

In 2019, Serbia had GDP growth, decreasing public debt, a sustainable fiscal deficit, increased employment and low inflation. Macro stability has been largely achieved, creating a strong inflow of foreign direct investment, larger domestic demand and increased exports.

On Dec. 13, 2019, S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Serbia to `BB+` from `BB`. The outlook is positive, which reflects strong prospects for continued inflows of productive foreign direct investments (FDI), which could further widen and diversify Serbia`s export base.

WORST MOVE OF THE GOVERNMENT

– Serbia has to work more to improve the environment. Even if the government and local authorities are trying to deal with the environmental issues, the achievement is not very satisfactory. I still can see so much trash and industrial wastes in illegal dump sites, see the grey and yellow dust even in clear day and smell the bad stink beside the Sava and Danube river. Definitely Serbia needs to spend more money, time and effort to improve the environment. But it’s time to start to take an action more proactively.


YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE YEAR 2020?

– I sincerely hope that we’ll enlarge economic cooperation between two countries and increase trade volume. Increasing number of Korean companies are showing a lot of interests and expectations for new investment and business opportunities in Serbia because Serbia has a big potential to attract FDI. I hope more Korean companies will start their business in 2020. in various fields. I also hope more Korean investors will make their factories in Serbia with consistent help from the central and local governments of Serbia. We have to work together on it to achieve our goals!