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" |
North Korea Mission – A Deal
in the Making?
By Wong Ip Kuen
Chairman
Yau Lee Holdings Ltd
Thank you for inviting me to speak about business
opportunities in North Korea at this debriefing. Frankly speaking, I have not much
experience I can share with you all, seeing that I stayed in North Korea for 2 days only.
During the visit there, arrangements were made for us to attend an introductory meeting
with local high-ranking authorities. After the meeting, we were separated into a few small
groups based on different trades. In the small group discussion, they had five of their
people join in. Two of them were speechless and did not give us name cards as well. One of
them was a translator. The other two were just listening to our introduction. We
introduced in detail our company as an advanced construction firm with new technology, a
construction IT application services provider and a building materials and machinery
trader. We also gave them our company ’s brochures. It took only half an hour for the meeting. Near to the end of the
meeting, when we were shaking hands with them to say goodbye, one of them suddenly pointed
at a person and said to me, "if
you want to do any foreign trading, you must contact him directly."
At dinner time, someone said to me that they wanted to buy a material hoisting, a
temporary passenger hoist and some tiles with an estimated value of HK$2 million. Based on
their choice of building materials and machinery, those are common materials and simple
machinery. Normally, they can be made in local. But because they source them from outside,
it shows that they are really short of materials. When we came back to Hong Kong, we kept
on contacting them to ask for their requirements, specifications and standards. It is just
the same procedure as we deal with other countries. Up to this moment, we are still
exchanging information and have not yet given them the quotation.
The meeting with them reminds me of my past experience of China business deals 25 years
ago. That means, the government owns all their companies. When you deal with them, they
are not open to exchange views with you or give you some hint or direct decision as they
need to report to their seniors for further direction or instruction.
No doubt they have cheaper labour cost or perhaps cheaper land, but the transportation
fee is a great concern, and also don ’t forget they may not have enough utility supplies and infrastructure. Anyway, if
anyone really wants to enter into their market, I would like to suggest two preliminary
steps:
- bring your brochures with you, so that it is easy for you to introduce yourself and let
them know more details for reporting;
- send your people to stay there for a longer period, in order to well understand about
their market, usual practice, law and regulations, culture, human relationship, etc.
On the financial terms, we are still exploring the arrangement and I am sorry that I
have not much to say now. Anyway, I wish you all good luck if you wish to proceed to North
Korean market.
Thank you very much.
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