CEO's Message

Greetings,

 

World-OKTA was founded in 1981 by Korean businesspeople living around the world to contribute to the economic development and trade promotion of their home country and to build a global overseas Korean economic community.

 

It started with just 101 members from 16 countries, and over the past 43 years, numerous overseas Koreans have joined forces to grow the organization into the largest overseas Korean economic organization with some 7,000 active members and 28,000 next-generation members registered with 148 chapters in 70 countries, as of 2024.

 

World-OKTA led the way to import goods from Korea by forming a Korean-made product purchasing team in the 1980s, stepped up to help the motherland overcome the financial crisis in the late 1990s, and spared no efforts from various aspects to promote the ratification of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, with Korean-American businesspeople playing a pivotal role, in the 2000s. As such, World-OKTA takes great pride in the fact that it has been at the forefront of economic development and expansion of the economic territory of Korea and greatly contributed to bolstering the status and image of Korea.

 

With the slogan, “World-OKTA, making a new leap forward for the next 100 years,” all members are hard at work as the spearheads of economic growth of Korea around the world in order to build upon the proud achievements over the past 43 years and turn World-OKTA into a proud organization that unites overseas Korean businesspeople worldwide to create powerful synergy.

 

As part of these efforts, World-OKTA is dedicated to serving as a bridge for the overseas expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea through overseas branch projects using a network of overseas Korean businesspeople, export support projects for carbon material and technology companies, and overseas employment support projects.

 

Members of the association, who are CEOs of corporations in their resident countries, have turned into global marketers to support Korean SMEs in advancing into overseas markets, and the Global Marketer School, offering business education, has also been founded to support SMEs in exporting their products and services.

 

Moreover, we are working to foster the next generation of overseas Korean businesspeople through the Next Generation Global Start-up & Trade School and are also taking the lead in assisting young adults in Korea who are interested in overseas employment and establishing their own start-ups. We send young adults overseas for such purposes each year and are committed to attaining our targets.

 

Currently, World-OKTA is riding a wave of growth and moving forward at a rapid pace. As the largest economic network of overseas Koreans, we will endeavor to become one of the top seven economic organizations, instead of falling complacent. To this end, we will invite more overseas Korean businesspeople with competency and expertise to join us, so that we can continue to assist Korean companies in entering overseas markets.

 

Build a bigger tomorrow in bigger markets with World-OKTA!

 

World-OKTA, the proud overseas Korean economic organization representing 7.5 million overseas Koreans, will stand by the Korean SMEs and youth on their journey toward the global market. Thank you.