Sejong / SEOUL, March 5 ( Yonhap) - South Korea will develop their SMEs through deregulation and concluded new free trade agreement (FTA ) in order to expand their trade volume in general, said Wednesday the minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Yoon Sang- Jick .
In an interview with Yonhap News Agency , Yoon said the slowdown in economic growth in China may adversely affect this year , exports and economy.
"While paying special attention to the Chinese market, the country needs to diversify its foreign markets to help maintain stable growth of exports ," said the minister.
China is the largest importer of South Korean products , worth over 141,000 million , representing over 26 percent of total exports to South Korea last year. The figure is comparable with the exports during the same period, the United States - the world's second largest importer of Korean - valued at 60,000 million.
According to the minister , the diversification of foreign markets include South Korea 's efforts to sign FTAs with China , Indonesia , Vietnam and the three countries of the Commonwealth of Nations , Australia , Canada and New Zealand . Yoon added that when implemented FTAs with China, Australia , Canada and New Zealand, will help expand the national trade territory from 55 percent today to 71 percent of global gross domestic product.
South Korea is currently holding talks to sign eight new bilateral and multilateral FTAs , including a trilateral free trade agreement with China and Japan, and is also trying to revise or improve an existing agreement with the 10 members of the Association Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN , according to its acronym in English ) .
It is also considering participating in the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Partnership (TPP ), which involves 12 countries including U.S., Japan , Mexico and Chile. Yoon said , about which plan to take the final decision on whether to join the TPP after carefully review and analyze the results of the preliminary bilateral talks , together with the result of a study being carried out on the effect of multilateral industrial sector in each country TLC .
The minister added that , in order to increase national exports , it is necessary to increase the number of exporting firms and, to this end, the Government will seek to increase , by 2017 , the number of SMEs exporting 87,000 to 100,000.
The Government also eliminate excessive or unnecessary regulations that may discourage or prevent private companies making new investments .
