Envoys from half a dozen Southeast Asian nations and the ASEAN-Korea Center kicked off the opening of an international furniture fair to showcase furnishings from the Southeast Asian region at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday.

A dozen Southeast Asian envoys, including Thai Ambassador to South Korea Kittiphong na Ranong, as well as ASEAN Korea Center General Secretary Chung Hae-moon, opened the five-day Korea International Furniture and Interior Fair 2013 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one of the main halls in KINTEX.

ASEAN-Korea Center organized an “ASEAN Pavilion” at the Korea International Furniture & Interior Fair 2011, or KOFURN 2011, to display the companies’ furniture and interior decorations. The fair ended on Monday.

The pavilion exhibited high-quality furnishings from six Southeast Asian nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Loas, Vietnam and Thailand.

Malaysian furniture exports to the South Korean market increased by 25 percent in 2012, according to one vendor representing Simewood Products Sdn. Bhd. Furniture is an $8 billion a year industry in Malaysia, about 2 percent of the country’s GDP.

Southeast Asia’s participation in the fair is expected to increase the overall trade volume between Korea and the region in the furniture sector.

(ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)