Korea International Trade Association’s e-Biz Support Center has built up a reputation of being a “seamless e-Business” booster across Asia.

Starting with signing a pact with the Department of International Trade Promotion of Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce for sales of the website- and marketing-design models to the Southeast Asian country, KITA is now spreading the service to Vietnam and Indonesia as well as South American states such as Peru.

“KITA has been the only institution in Korea that has the infrastructure and know-how to support all aspects of trade, from market research to payment systems,” said Choi Won-ho, head of the support center.

“Online commerce has become an essential part of trade. We will pave the way for domestic companies and fledgling exporters to target overseas markets easily and swiftly,” he added.

One of the most popular services is the TradeNAVI service (tradenavi.or.kr), a portal website providing relevant trade-related information from 34 domestic institutions including government agencies, public corporations, private associations and companies. From taxation rates to the accreditation and regulation as well as technical trade barriers, all the things a businessman needs to know about international commerce is provided at the spot, KITA said.

“Before, people had to search different websites and organizations to get what they want, but here, you can get anything. It prevents the ‘spaghetti bowl effect,’ which occurs when too many countries and regulations are involved in a single deal,” a KITA spokesman said.

A total of 183,135 articles on international trade have collected on the website since it opened in July 2014. Searching is also available by inserting a simple keyword such as the name of the product or its HS code, a globally used numbering system to track tariffs and trade statistics on the product.

Another service, the K-stat, is a compilation of all trade-related statistics in the country. The trade figures in both South and North Korea as well as those of 50 countries accounting for 86 percent of the world’s trade volume is stored there. Time series analyses, matrices and multiple comparisons are available at the site. It is also aligned with the Trade NAVI as well as other KITA services and is scheduled to launch mobile services in October.

“We are seeking to help all tradesman, who do not even have overseas salespersons, to make the most of the websites and find business opportunities abroad,” the KITA spokesman said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)