Government Aims to Post $500 Bln in Exports in 2009

Pledges to put its heart and soul into achieving the target

The government vowed to devote all its energies into achieving next year's target of posting $500 billion in exports in a bid to shore up the slumping economy amid uncertainties, caused by the U.S. financial crisis.
In a speech during the 45th Trade Day anniversary event held at COEX in Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak said, "The government will devote all its energies toward achieving next year's target of $500 billion in exports by extending trade insurance in an anticipative and sufficient manner." He promised the participants of the anniversary event that the government will dramatically expand export insurance and guarantees so exporters can export their products with ease and ensure the provision of money necessary for production.
Lee noted that the global economy is facing an unprecedented crisis and uncertainties in financial markets have adversely affected the real global economy, so advanced economies, Korea's major export markets, are forecast to post negative growth rates. The simultaneous downturn of economies around the world and worries for the Korean economy, which depends heavily on exports, triggers the need for extraordinary steps to be taken in the first half of next year when the national economy is expected to be at its bleakest, he added.
The president appealed to the innovative efforts of entrepreneurs to tide over the current crisis, and businessmen need to demonstrate entrepreneurship with a challenging spirit because they cannot translate a crisis into an opportunity unless they invest and brace for the future at the difficult times.
He stressed the strengthening of the competitive edge of Korea's mainstay industries, the occupying of "blue oceans" by exploring new mainstay products, and the diversifying of exporting markets to Russia, Central Asia, Latin America and Africa beyond Korea's existing export markets including the United States, Japan and China, as well as the establishment of a labor-management culture based on co-prosperity and collaboration between large-sized companies and SMEs.
A total of 756 individuals, including two organizations, were presented with orders, medals and other government citations in recognition of their contributions to the development of the exporting industry. During the event, organized by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), 1,403 companies were awarded with export tower prizes.
The $50 billion export tower award went to Samsung Electronics, which surpassed the unprecedented $50 billion export barrier one year after being awarded with the $45 billion export tower prize. It was in 1971 that Samsung Electronics, with a staff of five, began exporting. Since its engagement in exporting in earnest in 1973, Samsung Electronics became the first Korean company to receive the $10 billion export award as it posted $11.87 billion worth of exports in 1996. The electronics giant went from strength to strength: it posted $23.6 billion worth of exports in 2002 before shattering the $40 billion barrier in 2005.
It was STX Group which made the most outstanding achievements: the group's four subsidiaries, STX Pan Ocean, STX Shipbuilding, STX Engine and STX Heavy Industries, won the $6 billion, $2 billion, $800 million and $300 million export tower awards, respectively, by recording a total of roughly $10 billion in exports. STX Shipbuilding was honored with the $2 billion export tower prize only two years after it won the $1 billion export prize in 2006, while STX Engine snatched an export prize for the fourth straight year.
STX Pan Ocean has been recognized in Korea and abroad, winning the $6 billion export tower prize, this year's fifth largest award, together with Hanjin Shipping. nw

(from top) President Lee Myung-bak acknowledges Lee Hee-beom, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, and other representatives of the business community and Trade Day prize winners as he participates in the Trade Day anniversary event at COEX on Dec. 2. President Lee chats with the participants.