KTR eyes overseas expansion by giving exporters a helping hand

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KTR eyes overseas expansion by giving exporters a helping hand

Published: 17 Dec. 2024, 14:59 Updated: 17 Dec. 2024, 16:36

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR) President Kim Hyun-cheol [KTR]

[INTERVIEW]

With Korean companies having risen to prominence on the global stage, the Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR) hopes to be a secure companion in their journey to overseas expansion.

After establishing Korea’s first certification agency in Poland this year, KTR set a goal of logging 1 trillion won ($700 million) of annual revenue by 2035.

[Game Changer] KTR to be 'bridgehead' for Korean companies eager to bolster exports

“KTR’s 10-year goal is to become a global comprehensive testing agency, and it was set through a series of discussions and reviews,” wrote KTR President Kim Hyun-cheol in a recent email interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. “The vision will be achieved through our extension of businesses, which stretches to carbon neutrality, AI and software, hydrogen and secondary batteries.”

Established in 1969, KTR is an internationally certified testing and evaluation institution that aims to help domestic companies export their goods to foreign countries.

KTR completes more than 470,000 tests and certification requests per year for more than 30,000 businesses. With some 1,300 employees, it has formed strategic partnerships with 241 institutions from 52 countries.

Below are edited excerpts from the emailed interview.

KTR President Kim Hyun-cheol, sixth from right, takes a photo at a ceremony of opening of KTR Vietnam in the capital city of Hanoi on Nov. 14. [KTR]

Q. Do you have detailed plans for how to achieve 1 trillion won in sales by 2035?
A. We have three big strategies to map out the plan: “Always Transition,” “Jump Up” and “Smart Management” to realize the 1 trillion won plan. First of all, the Always Transition strategy is that we will shift the business structures rapidly and flexibility to always discover changes to achieve a fusion of businesses, diversification of businesses and presentation of new solutions.

The Jump Up strategy will be concretized by making big bets on future businesses through mergers and acquisitions of testing institutions at home and abroad and securing more global networks.

To make those two strategies reliable, we push for a Smart Management plan, which is to implement new technologies like AI to foster new talent to maximize work efficiency.

In your over two-year term as president, KTR seems to have formed many organizations globally. What are they?
KTR opened a Vietnam subsidiary on Nov. 14 in the capital city of Hanoi to offer testing and evaluation services for Korean and foreign companies, as well as to conduct some Vietnam-dedicated services like the certification of greenhouse gases.

Vietnam, as a manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, has huge potential in the certification area, but only Vietnamese corporations can proceed with business activities. So, KTR established one to directly operate certification businesses for Korea’s exporting companies and local firms. KTR Vietnam will now serve as a bridgehead for KTR’s business in the Asean region.

In August, KTR also opened an Indonesian branch in Jakarta, which specifically runs to help domestic companies acquire certifications and get approval from the Indonesian government.

Above all, KTR established GCB, an agency that directly grants Europe’s Communaute Europeenne (CE) mark, in Warsaw, Poland, in October of last year. The agency is KTR’s very first certification-granting body set overseas.

To sell products in European countries, getting a CE mark is mandatory to represent a manufacturer’s declaration that products comply with the EU’s [European Union] regulations. And under the rule, that body must be located in Europe.

Until now, Korean testing agencies have been granting CE marks in cooperation with agencies in Europe, which requires more time and additional costs for Korean companies. KTR’s Poland agency can help them and ease their burden to manage businesses in the local market.

KTR announced partnerships with 28 new countries over the last two years. Now, KTR has grown as a global certification agency that has international networks with 241 institutions from 52 countries.

KTR's headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi [KTR]

More specifically, what global certification services does KTR offer?
As an agency accredited by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation and the IEC Systems for Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components, KTR’s test results are 100 percent recognized by the member countries.

Also, KTR offers certification under the Japanese Industrial Standard and COSmetic Organic Standard. KTR’s Shenzhen branch is a Chinese government-approved testing institution that offers China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment. Europe’s MDR is also a specialized service for KTR.

Furthermore, KTR is also endeavoring to spread Korea’s own certification system. We inked a deal with the Paraguay government to build our system in the country and agreed to deliver our technology to it. We also received many requests from Southeast Asian and African countries to implement our system to their country.

KTR also thoroughly monitors foreign regulations about certifications and runs a 1381 call center that allows all to discover accurate information about various certifications of all countries.

What are KTR’s most recent concentrations?
Carbon neutrality, AI and software, hydrogen, and battery are among those.

KTR is the United Nations-approved verification organization for the validity of greenhouse gas and emission trading schemes. As a designated operational entity by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, KTR offers related services and evaluates a party’s life cycle assessment for its environmental impact.

Not only that, KTR is the government’s designed Good Software certification giver, which proves the quality of the software in products locally marketed, and handles Common Criteria Certification that guarantees customers the security of certain IT products.

We also obtained the right to evaluate the quality of creditability of the AI system last year as the first verification entity in the country.

The secondary battery sector is also an area we are focusing on. KTR runs a battery energy research institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi, and also another research lab in Shenzhen that owns some 100 [pieces of] equipment.

KTR, on Nov. 1, began construction of a BaaS (Battery as a Service) demonstration center in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, which will be a key facility that certifies the full cycle of a battery to retired batteries.

KTR is also pushing for infrastructure for key industries like vaccine developments, hydrogen vehicles and semiconductor materials. And though I can’t detail them now, we are in discussions on entering new sectors like pet health care, chips and future mobility.

Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR) President Kim Hyun-cheol [KTR]

What’s your biggest motivation, and your future plan for KTR?
I pledged to make KTR a global institution that pursues innovation and change and prepares the future in my inauguration speech. To help it grow into a comprehensive digital-based certification company, all KTR employees work tirelessly with a shared goal.

I carried out a massive reshuffle at the beginning of my term for our organization to seek sustainable growth. Task forces were formed, and expanded the size of some important teams dealing with key tasks like carbon neutrality. We combined AI and big data into our service and earnestly began digitization through internet consultations and cloud-based data management.

The 1 trillion won plan was made through a thorough review and consideration of all KTR staff.

Especially, I tried my best to directly communicate with 1,300 KTR employees by opening various events and visiting all the KTR branches to meet with employees there to hear their voices. Through more kinship with employees and deeper understanding, it creates synergy and accelerates our vision, both in quality and quantity aspects.

I will keep going on taking my staff’s and clients’ happiness as my priority.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]