K-culture boom: South Korea to expand consumer goods exports

Seoul, Nov 12 (IANS) The government plans to announce a comprehensive strategy aimed at expanding South Korea's exports of consumer goods within this year amid growing global demand for Korean food, beauty and fashion products, the trade ministry said on Wednesday.

Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo unveiled the plan during his meeting with major Korean companies manufacturing and distributing consumer goods, including online fashion platform Musinsa, e-commerce giant Coupang Inc., and a leading health and beauty retailer CJ Olive Young, reports Yonhap news agency.

The meeting was held to discuss measures to boost the country's exports of consumer goods in line with the rising popularity of Korean culture, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said.

The ministry said the upcoming strategy will likely include measures to help Korean products make inroads into global markets using a premium strategy, resolve difficulties related to exports, such as logistics and certification, and the establishment of global online malls for Korean-made products.

"Our distribution platforms are the key bridges connecting overseas consumers with Korean products," Yeo said, noting that consumer goods can become a new growth engine for the country's exports, which have traditionally been focused on semiconductors, automobiles and other industrial goods.

Meanwhile, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan met with Qatar's energy minister on Wednesday in Seoul to discuss bilateral cooperation in energy supply chains, plant construction and shipbuilding.

In the meeting with Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, Qatar's minister of state for energy affairs, the two sides exchanged views on Qatar's plan to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and measures to strengthen supply chain cooperation, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.

Qatar is one of South Korea's major partners in LNG, with Seoul having imported 4.87 million tons of natural gas from the Middle Eastern country in the first eight months of this year. The volume marked the second-largest amount of LNG imported from a single country.

The ministers also agreed to bolster the two countries' "mutually beneficial" cooperation in plant construction and shipbuilding, and create joint projects in the areas.

Qatar ranked fifth in Korea's overseas plant orders in the January-September period, with total contracts worth US$2.79 billion.

—IANS

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