Republic of Korea

Kenji Ueda, president of Kintetsu Worldwide Express (KWE) Korea, has seen many things change since he first arrived in the country in 1996. The efforts of the country's current president, Kim Dae-Jung, to open the Korean market to foreign players have paid off -- especially for Korea's closest neighbor Japan.

In particular, the deregulation has allowed the Japanese shipping and logistics giant to set up a 100 percent-owned subsidiary in Korea. "We looked towards the future and realized that Korea is a very important country for us -- not only for business with Japan but also for the whole of North-eastern Asia, the US and Europe," Ueda remarks.

In the early stages of the business, Ueda thought that KWE Korea's business would come mainly from customers in the textile or garment industries. As the years passed, he noticed a shift into the high tech sector as Korea's economy strengthened its activity in that area. "Customers from the high tech industry are more demanding," he says. "Business talk has completely changed from price talk to total logistics. We found that our customers did not only want the best price, but also required the best system, a wide global network and third party logistics."
Kenji Ueda, president of Kintetsu Worldwide Express Korea

Kintetsu operates through a global network that offers quality distribution services. However, unlike other branches worldwide, KWE Korea did not have any warehousing facilities when it started and could not offer more than its basic services to its clients. Today, the company has become fully integrated and ready to meet its customer's needs.

In this year of increased Japan-Korea relations, Ueda believes that everyone must do their part to ensure continued progress. "I am the president of this company but I not only have a responsibility to this company, I also have a responsibility to Korean economy," he concludes. "We will strive to keep the company growing, together with the Korean economy and Korea's forwarding sector."

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