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Trade
Korea to Become G7 by 2015
President Lee Myung-bak attends the 47th Annual Trade Day
"The Korean government is to seek new trade policies to cope
with a rapidly changing trade environment in the wake of the
global financial crisis." President Lee Myung-bak urged in his ceremony
speech to mark the 47th Trade Day at COEX, Seoul on
November 30. In his speech, the president stressed the importance
of penetrating markets in emerging economies such as
China, India, and Brazil. Those countries have shown rapid
growth and positioned themselves central to the world's economy.
He added that the proportion of G7 nations in world trade
has been reduced from half to one third, which the G20 accounts
for two-thirds of the world economy.
President Lee stated, "The development agenda of the G20
Seoul Summit also holds significance, in line with the long-term
expansion of the overseas market." Later, the President urged local
small and medium sized enterprises to enter into the global
market by upgrading their competitiveness. The Korean government
intends to incubate more SMEs to raise the nation's total exports
up to 40 percent from the current 30 percent. After the
President's greeting, the government of Korea announced its ambitious
vision to become one of the world's top 7 exporters by
2015. With this, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced
seven potential-laden markets, such as Central and
South America, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, China,
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. To increase
the trade volume, the ministry is planning to enter the infra
market which links resource development and
aggressively targets the middle class consumer
market. The ministry will also establish a new
infrastructure to foster 500 SMEs as global businesses.
Additionally, the ministry will integrate
and organize all the trade information from various
ministries as well as expanding their online-based
electronic trading networks. Also,
they enhanced the support for pioneering the
field of new trade sectors including procurement,
services, and plant.
With this, Korea is currently negotiating a
FTA with 12 countries including Canada and
Mexico. The trade conditions will improve
when the currency stabilizes and new free trade
agreements with the EU and Peru are fully utilized.
So far, Korea has ratified Free Trade
Agreements (FTA) with 45 countries.
Meanwhile, the Korea International Trade Association (KI-
TA) announced that Korea is expected to become the world's 7th
largest exporter this year for reaching the amount of USD 466 billion
in exports, which is exceeding the level which stood prior to
the economic crisis in 2008. Also, Korea jumped two spots ahead
from last year when they held the position of 9th biggest exporter
in exports.
Also, KITA forecasts that exports will reach a total trade volume
of USD 1 trillion ranking them the 9th trade nation in the
world for next year. KITA sees that Korea will have a surplus of
USD 42 billion as exports are expected to rise by 28.2 percent to
USD 466 billion and imports by 31.2 percent to USD 424 billion,
by far the nation's highest number. In addition, KITA forecasts
for the next year, exports will increase 10.7 percent to USD $516
billion and imports will grow 14.4 percent to USD $485 billion
for next year. Nevertheless a lot of uncertainties in the global
economy are likely to weaken export growth for next year, the nation's
key export items such as automobile parts, machineries and
textiles will lead as the strongest exports continually. The automobile
parts industry is expected to increase demands in emerging
markets including China. The IT industry also has a positive
outlook for the next year as the demand for TV panels, semiconductors,
and smartphone displays increase.
80 KOREA IT TIMES | December 2010