The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS, Minister OH Youngju) and Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (Chairman Kang Seokjin, hereinafter KOSME) announced that they will fully launch the Overseas Mentor Program, where local experts provide know-how on U.S. tariff response procedures, overseas expansion, and diversification of export countries necessary for exporting startups, starting from Tuesday July 8, 2025.

The Overseas Mentor Program was designed to enable domestic SMEs to utilize the local networks of the Global Business Centers (GBC), established and operated at major global trade hubs, in real time.

The mentor group consists mainly of businesspeople, experts (customs brokers, lawyers, accountants, etc.), university professors, Korean community organizations, and institutions active at the 21 Global Business Centers (GBC).

The program will be conducted as webinars through a real-time online platform (YouTube channel ‘Global Business Center (GBC) Overseas Mentor Group’) to allow anyone to participate. To address the questions companies have, pre-questions and follow-up consultation requests will be accepted up to two days before each webinar starts, and one-on-one consultations will be offered via Zoom after the sessions.

The lecture topics of the program are broadly divided into four main areas: 1) U.S. tariff response and other overseas regulations and policies, 2) buyer research strategies, 3) overseas expansion, and 4) strategic items by country. The detailed content will be determined by each Global Business Center (GBC), considering global local trends and corporate demand.

The first lecture topics are “Strategies for Entering Major U.S. Retail Chains” by CEO CHUNG Seung-hwa of Hitrons Solution INC; “K-Beauty Expansion Strategy Based on Offline Networks” by CEO KIM Che-young of Colavo Ground Co., Ltd. (a New York GBC resident company); “U.S. Tariff Response Measures and Export Customs Clearance Procedures” by Customs Broker YOO Jeong-hak (U.S. customs broker and president of the New York Association of Korean-American Businessmen, Inc.); and “U.S. Market Entry and VC Experience Cases for K-Tech Startups” by CEO AHN Joon-wook of Lawfully Co., Ltd.

LEE Soon-bae, Director General for Global Growth Policy, stated, “The biggest challenge for exporting SMEs is the lack of local market information. Especially this year, due to U.S. tariff policies, there is a high demand for tariff information and alternative market discovery.” He added, “We hope companies actively utilize the Overseas Mentor Program, which provides an opportunity to meet experts who can accurately provide local information in real time.”

The Overseas Mentor Program plans to hold a total of 21 sessions this year, with sessions in July at New York GBC (July 8), LA GBC (July 10), Riyadh GBC (July 22), andShenzhen GBC (July 29). Future schedules and detailed content will be released sequentially on the YouTube channel ‘Global Business Center (GBC) Overseas Mentor Group (youtube.com/@2025mentor).’