OKTA chief vows to nurture global business leaders

By Kim Jae-kyoung

Park Ki-chool, chairman of World-OKTA / Courtesy of World-OKTA

The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Associations (World-OKTA) will play a key role in fostering global business leaders by helping young Koreans start businesses abroad, said World-OKTA President Park Ki-chool.

“We will place a top priority on providing support for young Koreans at home and abroad to find a way to open new businesses and find jobs abroad,” Park said in a recent interview.

“For more systematic support, we have opened the Global Startup Support Team under our secretariat,” he added. “The team is in charge of running our Global Startup School to find young entrepreneurs and foster them as global leaders.”

Since 2003, the organization has run the startup school for young Korean residents abroad and has discovered a total of 18,600 entrepreneurs so far.

To nurture more next generation leaders, Park, who first took the helm of the federation in October, 2014 and was reelected in late May, plans to strengthen the Rising Star Project during his second term.

Through the project, World-OKTA has used its startup fund to support entrepreneurs selected by its startup school.

“To help young entrepreneurs open businesses right after they finish startup school, we plan to select promising candidates and give them opportunities to start a business in the form of a joint venture,” he added.

World-OKTA is currently operating a youth startup program in cooperation with Ajou University, Goyang City and Gyeonggi Province.

“To support global startups, we will set up a system connecting young entrepreneurs based in Korea to OKTA’s young members worldwide,” he said.

“Also, we plan to expand our startup fund to encourage more young Koreans to make their dreams come true on the global stage.”

The president said that he has sought to set the stage for young Koreans both at home and abroad to exchange ideas and work together.

“Using our global network, we can help those who are seeking to start new business abroad and overseas Koreans who want to start a business in Korea as well,” he said.

Park, who is chairman of PG Automotive Holdings based in Singapore, also promised to come up with a program to support the new government’s initiative to create more jobs for the youth.

“Since the new administration has a strong will to create new jobs for the youth, we are preparing to become a gateway for young people to find jobs abroad,” he said.

Using its global networks in 73 countries, World-OKTA plans to offer internships and full-time job opportunities in cooperation with state organizations and universities.