The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency opened a global center to support the merger and acquisitions of small and medium-sized companies.

KOTRA held the opening ceremony of its Global M&A Support Center at the Invest Korea Plaza on Monday, according to officials.

“We shall support M&A deals of Korean firms to help them gain a foothold in the overseas market,” said Oh Young-ho, president of the state-run company.

“Our prime focus will be the small and medium-sized firms which face difficulties in overseas expansion.”

Also, KOTRA, with its overseas branches and networks, is the most-suitable organization when it comes to backing small-sized firms, he added.

Since the global financial crisis, M&A deals have been key solutions to overcome economic stagnation, especially in Japan and China, which respectively reached 88 trillion won ($81 billion) and 62 trillion won in M&A total amounts last year, officials said.

Korea firms, too, braced themselves for the competition but many of them felt discouraged by the lack of information and state support.

In a recent survey conducted by KOTRA on 1,366 medium-sized companies, 12 percent of the respondents were interested in overseas M&As, according to officials.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)