I graduated from college in Korea between 1982 and 1989, and although I wanted to start a business, I hesitated because I had no money.

In 1990, while on a business trip to Bulgaria, which had fallen from communism, I thought that I could start a business with a small amount of money, and I have been doing business in Bulgaria since 1990.

Because of this, I was introduced twice on KBS TV, a Korean national TV, as the 'Bulgarian Ramen King'.

After 25 years of trading in Bulgaria, I decided that I did not want to end my life by only doing 'trade' and wanted to spend my remaining time promoting development between Korea and Bulgaria.

I thought that Ginseng, of which Korea is the origin country, could be a bridge to connect the two countries.

As a result, I have been directly managing 4 farms across Bulgaria since 2015 and have been collecting ginseng cultivation data.

I wrote a book called 'Standard Cultivation Method of Bulgarian Ginseng', introduced a ginseng project to the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 2019,

and opened a 'Ginseng School' in Sofia the following year in 2020, teaching 100% of the know-how on ginseng seed supply and ginseng cultivation to farmers across Bulgaria.

And Bulgarian Ginseng(PANACHEYA) registered thru IASAS after 3 years period in 2024.

In 2017, KOHEA held a ‘Korean Hospital Export Consultation’ in Seoul with the support of the Korean Ministry of Health, and I attended this consultation with the director of the Bulgarian Pirogov Hospital, where I learned about the work of KOHEA.

The following year, in 2018, Bulgarian hospitals, doctors, companies, and lawyers gathered together to establish the ‘Bulgarian Digital Medical Cluster’, an organization similar to KOHEA in Korea,

and I was appointed as the vice president in charge of Korean-related work.

In September 2019, when Prime Minister Borisov visited Korea as a state guest, I accompanied him and at that time, we signed an export contract for the 'HIS system' as a pilot project for the modernization of the Korean KOHEA and Bulgarian St. Ivan Rilski Hospital.

The following year, in May 2020, KOHEA was supposed to come to Bulgaria to conduct a field survey, but due to the COVID pandemic, he was not possible to come to Bulgaria, and the Korean KOHEA president also died from a chronic illness.

As a result, the 'Hospital Project' that had been prepared for a long time was in danger of being canceled, the Bulgarian hospital teams knew that I had been working on a ginseng project in Bulgaria for a long time and requested that I change it to a 'Korean Medicine Hospital' project, and I accepted this and changed it to a 'Korean  Medicine Hospital' project.

In 2022, the Bulgarian 'Korean Medicine Hospital' project was selected for the 'Overseas Expansion Support Project for Korean Hospitals' by KHIDI with the support of the Korean Ministry of Health, and the project to advance into the Korean Medicine Hospital is being carried out in Kyunghee Medical Center and Sapareva Banya in Korea.

There are 3 Bulgarian Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bulgaria, and I am the vice chairman of these 3 organization, but its activities are insufficient, so I personally established the 'Korea Bulgaria Exchange Promotion Association'.

We support Bulgarian companies and government agencies that wish to enter Korea, and we aim to provide the best support to Korean companies and government agencies that wish to enter Bulgaria and Europe through Bulgaria.

Do you need a partner in Korea?

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