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Trade/Investment
Korea's retail industry achieves 10.6% growth in April
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on May 30 that Korea’s retail industry saw a 10.6 percent gain in sales in April compared to the same period last year. Both offline and online retailers saw growth, up 10.2 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively. The Ministry releases monthly retail sales figures based on surveys of 25 major retailers. Thirteen of them are physical retailers: three department store chains, three hypermarket chains, three convenience store chains, and date2022-05-30
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Trade/Investment
MOTIE attends 28th APEC MRT Meeting
Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry (MOTIE)’s Deputy Minister for International Trade and Legal Affairs Ahn Sung-il attended the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) MRT (Ministers Responsible for Trade) meeting on May 21-22 held in Bangkok, Thailand to discuss supply chain, digital, and environment issues for an inclusive and sustainable future. In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister Ahn proposed measures on supply chain stabilization, climate change response, digital date2022-05-27
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Trade/Investment
MOTIE attends 28th APEC MRT Meeting
Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry (MOTIE)’s Deputy Minister for International Trade and Legal Affairs Ahn Sung-il attended the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) MRT (Ministers Responsible for Trade) Meeting on May 21-22 held in Bangkok, Thailand. APEC is the world’s largest economic consultative organization for sustainable economic growth and mutual prosperity consisting of 21 nations, taking up 62.2% of global GDP and 51.9% of total trade volume as of 2020. This 28t date2022-05-25
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Trade/Investment
Minister Lee co-hosts Korea-U.S. business roundtable
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang co-hosted the Korea-U.S. Business Roundtable with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on May 21 to strengthen Korea-U.S. partnership and expand supply chain cooperation. Minister Lee delivered opening remarks and participated in discussions on measures to expand bilateral trade and investment for mutually beneficial economic cooperation. In attendance were business representatives and government of date2022-05-25
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Trade/Investment
Korea-U.S. roundtable on occasion of President Biden's state visit
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang co-hosted a Korea-U.S. roundtable with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on the occasion of U.S. President Joe Biden’s state visit (May 20-22) and signed the Supply Chain and Commercial Dialogue MOU to deepen the existing economic relations to a partnership encompassing supply chain and high-tech. This roundtable was the sole opportunity during the state visit for bilateral public-private talks on supply chain countermeasures, tech date2022-05-24
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Trade/Investment
Netflix and Korea seal $100 million investment deal to build special effects infrastructure
Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun attended the ceremony held by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) marking the occasion of Netflix’s investment through a subsidiary called Scanline VFX that will inject USD 100 million over six years to build Asia’s first special effects filmmaking infrastructure in Korea. Scanline VFX is a company acquired by Netflix that specializes in special visual effects and provides services to global content creators like Warner Brothers, Marvel Stu date2022-05-23
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Trade/Investment
Trade Minister attends Netflix-Korea investment notification ceremony
Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun attended the Netflix-Korea investment notification ceremony on May 20, marking Netflix’s unprecedented six-year USD 100 million investment through its subsidiary Scanline VFX to develop high-tech special visual effects and virtual reality ecosystem in Korea, on the occasion of U.S. President Joe Biden’s state visit. In his opening remarks, Minister Ahn noted that “As K-content industry exports surpassed the $11 billion thresholds in 2020 and date2022-05-20
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Trade/Investment
Korea's automobile exports reach $4.4 billion in April
The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced on May 16 that Korea’s April automobiles exports recorded 196,780 units (up 12.4 percent) and USD 4.4 billion (up 6.1 percent) in value. Despite escalating global supply chain uncertainties, Korea showed mostly robust performance in its automobile production, domestic demand, and exports compared to the previous month. Production of cars suffered year-on-year from car parts shortages, less operating days (1 less), and supply chain ho date2022-05-16
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Trade/Investment
Korea's ICT exports hit all-time highs in April, expanding 16.9%
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on May 12 that Korea’s exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products in April advanced 16.9 percent to USD 19.9 billion, hitting record highs in both monthly and accumulated value. Imports expanded 12.4 percent to $12.1 billion, and the trade balance stood at a surplus of $7.8 billion despite external uncertainties, including the Russia-Ukraine situation and China’s lockdowns. Outbound shipments of all major date2022-05-13
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Trade/Investment
Trade Minister discusses investment with Thermo Fisher Scientific for global vaccine hub
Trade Minister Yeo held a videoconference on May 9 with Thermo Fisher Scientific, a U.S. supplier of scientific instrumentation, consumables, and software services, to discuss investment prospects of establishing a life science materials production plant in Korea amid the company’s plans to expand its vaccine materials infrastructure. Thermo Fisher Scientific is a global producer of both raw and subsidiary life science materials with approximately 100,000 personnel across 60 countries. It date2022-05-11