South Korea’s trade volume reaching $1 trillion, which is almost a miracle that has significance not only for Korea but for developing countries, Korea International Trade Association chairman SaKong Il said at a global conference on “New Vision for Korea’s Trade in the One-Trillion-Dollar Trade Era” held at the InterContinental hotel in southern Seoul.
In 1964, the country designated Export Day when exports rose above $100 million, and at the time the main export items included tungsten and squid. Less than 50 years later not only has our trade reached $1 trillion but includes automobiles and other high-tech items.
With Korea’s trade volume, including exports and imports, expected to surpass $1 trillion this year, Korea is set to become the ninth country in the world to achieve the milestone. Furthermore, the FTA with the EU and the Korea-U.S. FTA, which was ratified by the National Assembly in Seoul on Nov. 22, 2011, along with trade agreements with other important markets, are expected to provide additional impetus for growth of the Korean economy.
According to KITA, the value of Korea’s exports for the first eight months of the year came in at $368.8 billion, while that of imports came to $347.8 billion putting the total at just above $700 billion. The figure for exports is the seventh largest in the world, and that makes Korea the world’s ninth largest importer. This news is especially meaningful since the nation reached this economic milestone in the midst of the recent global economic uncertainties.
Many people – both experts and general public – agree that this achievement has been made possible due to the challenging spirit and constant endeavors of Korea’s numerous enterprises, from top-notch companies to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in such various industries as consumers goods, food, textiles, electronics, machineries, ships and IT, just to name a few.
As our way of paying tribute to this remarkable accomplishment, Buyers Guide in this issue introduces dozens of Korean consumer goods companies that manufacture quality products and solidified their presence in the global markets as well as the domestic market.
