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Industry
Online retail sales register double-digit growth in November
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on December 31 that Korea’s online retail sales in November registered a double-digit growth rate of 12.7 percent compared to a year earlier. With offline retail sales declining 0.5 percent, the overall retail sales saw an improvement of 4.6 percent.Despite growth in convenience stores and super supermarkets (SSMs), brick-and-mortar stores experienced a decrease in sales because hypermarkets slowed down.The growth of the online sales mai date2018-12-31
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Industry
Minister Sung awards government prizes to robot industry contributors
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yunmo awarded government prizes to individuals who contributed to the development of the robot industry at Robot Professionals’ Night 2018 in Seoul on December 19.The event showcased ten types of promising robot products, including caring robots and rehabilitation robots. The Korean government plans to roll out about 1,000 of these service robots to three basic local governments by 2019.During the congratulatory speech, Minister Sung emphasized that date2018-12-19
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Trade/Investment
Korea’s annual ICT exports surpass $200 billion for first time
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on December 18 that Korea’s exports of information and communications technology (ICT) goods from January to November this year reached a record USD 204.5 billion, surpassing the $200 billion mark for the first time.However, the exports of ICT goods in November saw a slight decrease of 1.7 percent, posting the first decline in 25 months. This is primarily due to a slowdown in the expansion of semiconductors and sluggish sales of mobile p date2018-12-18
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Industry
Auto exports, production post growth in November
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on December 13 that Korea's automobile exports and production in November posted growth compared to the same period last year.Exports of automobiles grew 1.6 percent to 238,357 units from a year earlier due to higher shipments of newly launched models to North America and Europe. In terms of value, automobile shipments to North America went up 0.2 percent to $1.7 billion, and those to the EU and non-EU European countries increased 3.3 percent date2018-12-13
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Industry
Korea to roll out 4,000 hydrogen vehicles next year
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yunmo attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new fuel cell stack plant at the Hyundai Mobis factory in Chungju on December 11. Fuel cell stacks are key components that make up more than half of the cost to build a hydrogen vehicle. Hyundai Mobis’ current fuel cell stack plant can produce about 3,000 stacks per year. With the new plant, the annual production volume is expected to increase date2018-12-11
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Industry
Minister Sung visits groundbreaking ceremony for fuel cell stack plant
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yunmo (third from the left) visited the groundbreaking ceremony for a fuel cell stack plant in Chungju on December 11.Fuel cell stacks are key components that make up more than half of the cost to build a hydrogen vehicle. Hyundai Mobis’ current fuel cell stack plant can produce about 3,000 stacks per year, and with the new plant, the annual production volume is expected to increase to 40,000 units by 2022.During his congratulatory speech at the cer date2018-12-11
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FTA/Economic Cooperation
Korea’s National Assembly ratifies revised KORUS FTA
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the Korean National Assembly ratified the revised Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) on December 7. The Korean government submitted a bill for the ratification of the revised KORUS FTA to the National Assembly on October 12. Now that the domestic procedure for implementing the deal is complete in Korea, the Korean government will discuss with its U.S. counterpart for the revised KORUS FTA to take effect on January 1, 2019. date2018-12-07
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Trade/Investment
Ministry hosts 55th Trade Day Ceremony
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 55th Trade Day Ceremony with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) to celebrate the country’s trade achievements at COEX in Seoul on December 7. In 2018, Korea’s trade grew at the fastest rate to reach USD 1 trillion, and its exports are expected to surpass $600 billion for the first time ever. Particularly, outbound shipments of semiconductors, general machinery, and petrochemicals are all projected to break their recor date2018-12-07
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Trade/Investment
Minister Sung attends Korea’s 55th Trade Day Ceremony
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yunmo (center) attended Korea's 55th Trade Day Ceremony to celebrate this year’s trade achievement at COEX in Seoul on December 7.In 2018, Korea’s trade grew at the fastest rate to reach USD 1 trillion, and its exports are expected to surpass $600 billion for the first time ever.During a reception after the ceremony, Minister Sung expressed gratitude for the efforts and commitment of trade workers and stressed that now is the time to seek fund date2018-12-07
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FTA/Economic Cooperation
Minister Sung signs action plan with Vietnamese counterpart to boost trade cooperation
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yunmo (left) and Vietnam’s Industry and Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh signed an action plan to achieve bilateral trade of USD 100 billion by 2020 in Seoul on December 6.The action plan has been developed to step up cooperation between the two countries on various fields, including retail, automobiles, and materials and components. date2018-12-06