Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang-jick said in his New Year’s message, “There are many tasks the government and the private sector will have to join forces in order to help our economy regain the growth momentum in a full-fledge manner this year and make a new leap forward.”
Looking back at last year, Minister Yoon said Korea reached the feat of achieving $1 trillion in trade for the fourth consecutive year thanks to businessmen and workers’ hard work. Korea enjoyed record-high exports and a record-high trade surplus.
In particular, Yoon said the Korean export industry has evolved a step higher — quantitatively and qualitatively — as SMEs and mid-sized superstars saw their export growth rates surpass the overall export growth rate, and the materials and parts industries posted a trade surplus of $100 billion for the first time.
In the area of trade relations, he said new FTAs with China, New Zealand, Canada and Vietnam helped Korea rank third in the world, with 73.45 percent in terms of the size of the FTA market.
With the conclusion of the FTA with China, the nation has been given a chance to explore the huge Chinese market like a second domestic demand market. Korea has become a global FTA hub, with an FTA network linking the global top three economies: the United States, EU and China.
Korea won projects worth a combined $50.2 billion by making the most of President Park Geun-hye’s summit talks and “sales diplomacy” activities in major emerging economies, including India, Central Asia and China.
“We’ve established ‘Manufacturing Innovation 3.0 Strategy’ designed to reinvent the industrial ecosystem by combining the whole of the manufacturing field with IT and software and devoted ourselves to explore new bread winners, including top 13 industry engines and energy new industries,” he said.
MOTIE has redoubled regulatory reform initiates.
MOTIE has become the first ministry to inaugurate a regulatory hearing session, which has led to tangible outcomes — improving duplicate certification and core regulation lumps, and abolishing 15 percent of existing restrictions.
Looking forward at 2015, Minister Yoon said the global economy is forecast to be in a slow recovery phase and see the overall economic situation get better, with the United States taking the lead. But there are still such uncertainties as the tapering of the U.S.’s quantitative easing, and Korean mainstay industries’ prospects are not bright.
He said the government would devote itself to helping the three-year economic innovation plan pay off, related to top strategies among G-20 countries. MOTIE will spearhead efforts to help industries and companies regain the vigor and enhance their competitive edge.
Second, he pledged that the ministry would overhaul industrial sites, products and the overall business ecosystem by implementing the Manufacturing Innovation 3.0 Strategy without fail.
Third, he said the ministry would strive to improve Korean industries’ fundamentals.
Fourth, he promised that MOTIE would redouble efforts to implement energy policies committed to ensure safety and trustworthiness.
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