Lee Dong-geun, Chief of the Office of International Trade & Investment under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) held a meeting with export managers on February 27 at the Seoul Palace Hotel to discuss measures to tackle the recent bad export outlook and find new export opportunities. Several organizations sent export managers to attend including the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), and the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses (Kbiz), the Korea Export Insurance Corporation (KEIC), and Korea’s Eximbank.
The meeting had three purposes – to understand the present methods that economic organizations use to support export companies, to listen to companies’ difficulties, and discuss measures to relieve those difficulties.
The KFI pointed out that export companies have suffered from a shortage of funds caused by a conservative limit on discounts for bills of export exchange and restrictions on credit loans. The KFI asked the government to reform each system and extend government subsidies to the KEIC and Korea Eximbank to solve fundamental export finance problems. Also it asked the government to support company marketing in foreign countries by introducing professionals and providing relevant information.
The KCCI asked the government to increase the limit of credit guaranteed by domestic banks, look into letting banks buy more bills of export exchange, and discounting exchange fees for smaller businesses.
Kbiz asked the government to enact countermeasures to secure supplies of scrap iron because there is a serious shortage. It also demanded strengthening support for companies to enter the Chinese market.
Lee explained: “Even in this bad situation, thanks to the hard work of export companies, Korea was in the black by 9.3 billion dollars, a provisional figure from the 1st to the 20th, in February, so it still looks hopeful. The government increased its export insurance fund more than ten times from 25 billion won in 2008 to 310 billion won in 2009, an increase of exactly 1,140 percent. It also raised the limit of export contracts from 130 trillion won in 2008 to 170 trillion won in 2009, an increase of exactly 30.8 percent. It also planned to respond to export companies’ difficulties with a revised supplementary budget to support them in such ways as helping them attend foreign exhibitions.”
