South Korea will intensify its efforts to nurture more small and mid-sized
exporting companies to help the nation's annual trade volume exceed US$2
trillion by 2020, the commerce ministry said Friday.
South Korea's
trade volume topped $1 trillion in early December for the first time in its
history, making the country the world's ninth to have ever reached the
$1-trillion mark in trade.
According to the ministry, the government
plans to foster 20,000 more small and mid-sized exporters by 2020 through
programs aimed at enhancing trading capacity of fledgling start-ups, and support
companies whose businesses were centered on the domestic market in looking
abroad.
To that end, the government will expand export subsidies,
which will be used to provide more business consulting for companies. It will
offer more support for their research and development efforts, the ministry
said.
In addition, Seoul's trade insurance support for small and
mid-sized exporters will be increased to 50 trillion won ($44.7 billion) from
the current 19 trillion won set aside last year.
The country also
plans to make 50 trillion won available for exporters that are pushing for
large-scale business projects. The number is up from the current 14 trillion
won, according to the ministry.
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