LS

[Photograph 1] October 31: Important attendees of the Southeast Asian LS Partners Conference held at the LS Mtron Jeonju Plant (Wanju, Jeollabuk-do) including Koo Gi-bon, Director in charge of global tractor production, LS Mtron tractor (7th from right, 1st row), Vice-President of Soeyanto, an Indonesian partner (6th from right, 1^st row), and Park Cheol-woong, President of the Foundation of AG. Tech, Commercialization and Transfer (5th from right, 1^st row).

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■? Holding Southeast Asia LS Partners Conference as part of LS GBPP and introducing products and technology of LS Mtron and SMEs
■? Exports via LS GBPP, the exporter incubation program for large corps. and SMEs, expected to reach KRW40 billion this year
■?? Southeast Asian tractor market to be 46,000 units annually, 4.6X bigger than Korean market. LS Mtron to cooperate with SMEs to advance into this market together. 
■?? CEO Andy Kim said, “Through this Southeast Asia LS Partners Conference, we will expand our entry into the Southeast Asian market and accelerate our entry into global markets together with small and medium-sized agricultural machine makers.”

LS Mtron (CEO Andy Kim), an LG Group affiliate specializing in industrial machines and high-tech components, announced on October 31 that it held its Southeast Asia LS Partners Conference at its Jeonju Plant in Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, as part of the LS Global Business Partnership Program (LS GBPP), and accelerated its advance into the Southeast Asian market together with domestic small and medium sized agricultural machine manufacturers.

Attending were more than 50 persons, including Koo Gi-bon, Director in charge of global tractor production at LS Mtron, Park Cheol-woong, President of the Foundation of AG. Tech, Commercialization and Transfer, which co-hosted this event, officials from Southeast Asian partners (Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines) and Park Eun-cheol, CEO of Ko Machine, an online platform startup for exporting machines, and CEOs of SMEs producing participating in the LS GBPP, attended the event.

At this event, officials from the Southeast Asian partners of LS Mtron had an opportunity to introduce △LS Mtron’s strategy and business model for the Southeast Asian market, △demonstrate the farm machines of small and medium sized agricultural machine companies, participate in the LS GBPP, and △ tour the production lines of LS Mtron.

LS GBPP is an exporter incubation program that enters into agreements with SMEs having excellent technology related to domestic agricultural machines to take advantage of LS Mtron’s 40-plus global networks, marketing competency and infrastructure to help them advance into overseas markets.

Also, LS GBPP is a program that will help everyone, including large corporations, SMEs and overseas customers. Participating SMEs can expect to develop new markets and increase exports, minimize initial export risks, and secure export know-how. Overseas customers can purchase LS Mtron’s agricultural machines proven of their excellence, and maintain and manage the products through LS Mtron. LS Mtron can also reinforce its ‘win-win’ cooperation with SMEs, and expand product groups.

Last year, LS Mtron supported exports worth about KRW35 billion through the LS GBPP. This year, it also selected over 30 companies to △provide export agency support, △expert local export counseling service, △OEM (partnership) export support, △support for joint participation in overseas exhibitions, △online product PR and marketing catalogs, and site production. This year, the exports of SMEs participating in the LS GBPP are expected to reach about KRW40 billion.

“I really liked it as I could see not only the tractors of LS Mtron, but also various agricultural machines and implements, for example, the farm working machines of small and medium sized agricultural machine makers in Korea, through the Southeast Asia LS Partners Conference,” said Mr. Probesco, Vice-President of Soeyanto, an Indonesian partner. “In particular, I was impressed by the intention of the program, which is ‘win-win’ cooperation.”

Meanwhile, the size of the Southeast Asian tractor market with its focus on Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar is about 46,000 tractors a year. This is 4.6 times bigger than the domestic (Korean) market of about 10,000 tractors. In particular, the number is expected to sharply increase to 60,000 tractors annually 5 years later. To accelerate its advance into the Southeast Asian market with high growth potential, LS Mtron is cooperating with small and medium sized agricultural machine makers in Korea.

“The collaboration between LS Mtron and the Foundation of AG. Tech, Commercialization and Transfer will lay the foundation for win-win cooperation among large, medium and small sized companies in agricultural machines,” said Park Cheol-woong, president of the Foundation of AG. Tech, Commercialization and Transfer. “We will continue to work with LS Mtron to find and support excellent SMEs in Korea.”

“The LS GBPP program is a meaningful business model in which LS Mtron, a large corporation, SMEs and the Foundation of AG. Tech, Commercialization and Transfer, a government agency, are cooperating with one another, and produce results,” said Andy Kim, CEO of LS Mtron. “Through this Southeast Asia LS Partners Conference, we will cooperate with domestic small and medium sized agricultural machine makers to accelerate our advance into global markets as well as the Southeast Asian market.”