The trade volume of South Korea exceeded 700 billion dollars on December 12, 2007. This meansthat South Korea is now the 11th largest country in trade volume among more than 220 exporting countries around the world. Considering that South Korea was rebuilt out of the ashes of the Korean War, which ended in 1953, it is a miracle that the war-torn country has come so far so fast.
South Korea, a country completely lacking natural resources, relied on trade with the world to escape poverty. In order to make money, nurses went to Germany in the 1960s; construction workers worked in the desert heat of the Middle East; and soldiers did not spare their lives in Vietnam. With money the country imported necessities from Japan, USA, and other countries to feed its people.
In the early 1960s, Major Generalturned President Park Jung-hee drove the nation to exports. The motto "Export is the only way to survive" became the code of conduct for the whole nation. In 1964, South Korea reached US$500 million in trade volume, including US$100 million dollars in exports.
In December 18, 2007, however, trade volume was recorded at US$700 billion with US$357.1 billion dollars in exports and 343.5 billion dollars in imports. The trade volume and export volume increased 1,400 times and 3,700 times larger than 1964 respectively. As economists put it, the growth that South Korea has made is a miracle on the Han River - the Han is the main river that flows through Seoul, the capital city of South Korea.
In order to continue creating more success stories for future generations, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) is selecting World Class Products of Korea, an export-drive stimulating program to identify competitive products for global markets. The Korea IT Times met with Kim Jong-ho, Director of the Trade Promotion Division at the MKE, to hear about what World Class Products of Korea (WCPK) means for Korea in the global recession.
Q: Can you tell us how you select World Class Products What kinds of products are they
A: WCPK was designed to enhance the quality of Korean products and to herald them to the world market. They are representing Korea in trade. That means that World Class Products of Korea are the backbone of the business.
We have chosen the best of the best. Only items that stand in the top 5 market shares can be WCPK. We also embrace some promising products that are evaluated to become, in the next five years, in the top 5 in their world markets. They all have competitiveness in quality, technology, and price positioning. I am sure that they will sweep the global markets soon in each category. WCPK and promising products are mainly from such fields as shipbuilding, mobile telecommunication devices, autos, semi-conducts and home-appliances. We have already selected 595 items from the lists. In a nutshell, they are the ones that make Korea what it is now.
Q: What are the World Best Products among market shares
A: We surveyed the rankings of the products in world market share in 2007. According to the survey, we have 127 products on top of the rankings. Representatives are: DRAM, TFTLCD, color monitor, LNG cargo ship, MED plant, CD-ROM Driver and so on. It is a remarkable development that the numbers of world number one items in market shares have increased.
Q: Are their market shares that high
A: Yes. D-RAM memories occupied 49.1% of the world market. LNG cargo shipbuilding swept it with 80.5% shares. MED plant that changes sea water into normal water reached 43.0%. Diesel engine for ship ranked top with 59.6%.
Q: Which companies have more than 10 world top items
A: Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Heavy Industry are shoulder to shoulder with 26 items each. Next to them are: LG Electronics with 13, LG Chemical with 12. MKE selected 37 new items as promising ones that have the potential to become the world best 5 in five years.
Q: How much do they contribute to the increase of exports
A: Their annual growth rate of export reached 30%. In 2007, they occupied 48% of total exports. By items, 108 items of the world class products were exported at more than 100 million dollars each. D-RAM, TFTLCD and passenger cars exceeded 10 billion dollars, respectively.
Q: What do we have to do to create more WCPK
A: Private and public sectors have to work together. The government can support private sectors by making enterprise-friendly policies on one hand. On the other hand, private sectors should not spare energy to make highend products both in design and quality so that they can enhance their brand power. We look forward to seeing nominees coming from cutting-edge intelligent robots.
Director Kim Jong-ho emphasized that giving the official stamp of World Class Product of Korea confirms the quality of the product. At a time like this when the world trade market seems to be frozen, domestic companies face greater challenges to compete in the global marketplace. Here, the government's seal of approval comes in handy when companies are looking to gain trust from those companies who might otherwise be skeptical.
The seal of authenticity also represents something to strive for and serves as a force to motivate domestic businesses to work harder. Sometimes a simple thing can galvanize companies and becomes a focus point. In school, things like the Mock Trial breastpin, Principal's Honor Roll Banquets, and National Honor Society tassels motivate students to study harder. Likewise, businesses will be motivated to produce higher quality products in order to be selected as World Class Products.
The official stamp of World Class Product of Korea, therefore, is a way to teach the businesses the intricacies of how to fish rather than simply catching fish for them. A lesson on how to bait a hook does more in the long run than a free meal ever did. As such, a firm and good government always looks for policies to teach businesses how to bolster their business competitiveness in the global marketplace. Mr. Kim concluded: "Here comes the necessity of our seal of approval, and we only select highly competitive products to compete overseas as Korea's representative products." World Class Product of Korea's seal of approval makes fishermen dance.
