Gov. Wes Moore will travel to Japan and South Korea on an economic development trip in April after the annual legislative session ends in Annapolis.

The week of travel starting April 11 will mark Moore’s first official international “trade mission” and his second time traveling overseas with the goal of enticing foreign companies to invest in Maryland.

Moore, in a statement responding to a request for comment for this story, said the state needs to “make big bets on industries of the future — from quantum to life sciences to aerospace and defense” in order to grow.

“I look forward to meeting with leaders in Japan and South Korea, who are on the cutting edge of innovation in fields that will unlock Maryland’s full potential,” Moore said. “We are ready and eager to build out our relationships with committed foreign partners in a way that is mutually beneficial to our interests—and delivers results for Marylanders.”

Moore’s full itinerary was not immediately clear, though it will focus on strengthening partnerships with two of the state’s largest trading partners in fields such as life sciences and quantum technology, according to Moore administration officials who were not yet authorized to talk publicly about the plans. It will include “meaningful new agreements and announcements that will further bolster these relationships,” an official said.

The trip will come on the heels of one of the most contentious and financially dire 90-day sessions in years. Moore and the Maryland General Assembly are on track to resolve a roughly $3.3 billion budget deficit by making more than $2 billion in spending cuts and enacting a wide-ranging tax reform plan.

Moore’s office declined to immediately disclose the cost of the trip to Asia, which will be shorter than the similar 12-day trade missions former Gov. Larry Hogan took there in both the first and final months of his two terms in office.

The governor has emphasized during budget talks that reversing Maryland’s stagnant economy is his top priority, though he’s also faced criticisms from many in the business community who say his plans impacting business taxes would have an overall negative impact on companies trying to build in the state.

Boosting economic growth by soliciting foreign companies to invest in Maryland has been the aim of previous governors’ international trips, including Moore’s four days in the United Kingdom in April 2023.

That visit was built around a global conference of business and nonprofit leaders where he also gave a keynote address. His office said at the time that $14,200 was budgeted for the governor and three staff members for the trip.

A more robust delegation will accompany him on the upcoming trip, including representatives from the governor’s office; the state departments of Commerce and Transportation, the secretary of state’s office and the private sector, according to administration officials.

Hogan’s first trip abroad — four months after he became governor in 2015 — included a 12-day itinerary across South Korea, China and then Japan.

In that last stop, he rode the country’s high-speed maglev train and met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He returned to Maryland with a mission to commit $28 million to study the maglev technology and an announcement from a Japanese-based technology and research company to expand its footprint in Maryland with a $20 million investment.

A decade later, the maglev project has continued to stall. Its organizers still aim to build a 300 mile-per-hour magnetic levitation line to connect Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in 15 minutes, and Washington and New York City in an hour.

Hogan returned to Japan and Korea for another 12 days in September 2022. On that trip, the governor announced new partners in a state-run “Global Gateway” program that helps foreign companies launch parts of their business in Maryland. He also met with Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, then-U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and active U.S. military members at the Yokota Air Base.

Hogan took seven such international trade trips over his two terms. Three of those — the 12 days in Asia, a week in Israel and six days in Paris and London — occurred by roughly the same point in his first term as Moore is now.

Japan is Maryland’s second-largest trading partner, with exports and imports totalling more than $6 billion in 2023. Korea is the state’s seventh-largest partner, with $1.7 billion in 2023.

There are more than 30 companies located in Maryland that are majority Japanese-owned and 14 that are majority Korean-owned, according to the state Department of Commerce.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, 443-790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.