[New Year's Address] Moon Seung-wook: "I will run together with our companies toward the era of $700 billion in exports"

Will Do Our Best to Sustain Export Boom into Next Year
Concrete Establishment of a Whole-Government Response System to Prevent the 'Second Element Crisis'
Promotion of Carbon Neutrality through Rapid Transition of Energy and Industry
Acceleration of Digital Technology-Industry Convergence to Create Future Growth Engines

Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. (File photo)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, promised on the 31st, "We will run together with our companies toward the era of '700 billion dollars in exports,'" pledging to do his best to continue the rebound trend that recorded the highest-ever performance this year.

In his New Year's address, Minister Moon said, "We will strengthen the 'wealth-creating trade strategy' that enhances industrial competitiveness based on strong linkage between industry and trade," adding, "While fully supporting the resolution of logistics difficulties, the biggest issue at export sites, we will also expand trade finance and overseas marketing based on industry demand."

He evaluated that this year proved that our economy is a 'Korea resilient to crises.' Minister Moon emphasized, "Among advanced countries worldwide, we were the first to recover the domestic gross domestic product (GDP) level before the COVID-19 crisis, and exports exceeded 640 billion dollars, achieving the highest-ever performance," adding, "K-industry, leading the world, was the greatest driving force in overcoming the crisis."

For the new year, Minister Moon stated that he would first realize supply chain stabilization and economic security through systematic supply chain management and fostering advanced industries. He said, "Above all, the whole-government response system to prevent the 'second element crisis' will be led and concretized by the ministries responsible for industry and enterprises," adding, "We will establish hotlines with overseas commercial attach?s, trade offices, and import companies for key items to monitor abnormal trends in real time both domestically and internationally, and for the identified risk factors, we will review multifaceted measures such as diversifying imports and expanding stockpiles to take preemptive national-level responses."

He also emphasized the will to promote carbon neutrality through rapid transition of energy and industry. Minister Moon explained, "To accelerate the spread of renewable energy, we will legislate systems such as appropriate separation distance standards and wind power one-stop shops, and expand zero-carbon power generation technologies and infrastructure such as ammonia and hydrogen," adding, "We will also proactively establish power grid reinforcement plans reflecting the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for greenhouse gas reduction, and to ensure stable resource supply during the carbon neutrality implementation process, we will strengthen resource stockpiling functions, expand the supply of petroleum alternative fuels, and promote the enactment of the 'Basic Resource Security Act.'"

To create future growth engines, he also revealed a policy to further accelerate the convergence of digital technology and industry and actively utilize it as an innovation engine for industry. He said, "We will strive to make this year one in which policy efforts to create future industrial food sources accumulate into concrete results," adding, "We will proactively foster next-generation fields such as power semiconductors, sensors, and white bio, and lead the domestic launch of Level 3 autonomous vehicles in the second half of next year."

Finally, Minister Moon said, "We will actively participate in multilateral and bilateral discussions to enhance supply chain resilience and establish digital trade norms, promote accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and review participation in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to raise our Asia-Pacific trade leadership," adding, "We will also actively contribute to international discussions for joint response to the climate crisis, but respond with meticulous logic to prevent environmental measures from becoming trade barriers to protect our companies, industries, and national interests."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.