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Korea export fair hosted in Buenos Aires
By Kim Ji-soo
Five Korean animation firms and a publishing company attended a Korea export fair held Tuesday in Buenos Aires in Argentina, a country deemed central to the Korean wave in South America.
The five animation firms of CJ E&M, Magic Pictures, Coan Studio, Grafizix and Next Visual Studio and the publishing company K-Culture set up booths at the Sheraton Hotel’s convention center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The export fair is the result of the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) having signed a memorandum of understanding in July to cooperate in expanding culture and “hallyu” or Korean wave content.
CJ E&M produces “Bananana Doong Doong,” Coan Studios “Space Jungle,” Grafizix’s “Let’s Play with Boomchiki Boom,” Magic Pictures’ “Byuris Time Travel,” Next Visual Studio’s “Let’s Fly Qua Qua,” and K-Culture’s magazine K-Wave.
Ahead of the fair, a seminar on content exchange took place between Alejandro Mondrazk, head of Clarin Group with Lee Jin-hee of CJ E&M delivering keynote speeches. Hong Seong-wook, head of Grafizics also introduced an animation co-produced by the two countries.
“Argentina is a core country in central and southern Americas in the spreading of Korean wave, and we need to make efforts to expand Korean firms’ entry there,” said Hong Sang pyo, president of KOCCA.
Korea continues to record a deficit in the services sector so far this year, boosted by performance of exports of cultural and entertainment-related goods and services. The Bank of Korea announced in August that Korea’s services sector in the second quarter of this year stood at $56.1 million, the largest since 2006.