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During President Lee Myung-bak's first visit to Tokyo, planned for next month, the government and business leaders will formally ask Japan to cooperate in reducing Seoul's trade deficit with Tokyo.
Knowledge-based Economy Minister Lee Youn-ho on Wednesday said, "Before President Lee's scheduled visit to Japan, we and the Federation of Korean Industries are trying to find ways to drastically reduce the trade deficit with Japan, with focus on the materials and components industry."
Late last month the FKI launched a task force at the minister's request and began studying concrete measures to overhaul the materials and components industry, which accounts for more than half of Korea's entire trade deficit with Japan.
Also on Monday, the FKI met with technology executives of major conglomerates to gather their opinions. The FKI is studying ways to raise funds to conduct joint R&D with Japan on materials and components, ask Japan's state-of-the-art materials and components manufacturers to invest more in Korea, conduct industry personnel exchanges between the two countries, and propose a joint venture with Japanese materials and components manufacturers to advance into third countries together.
A senior FKI official said, "About 60 percent of our country's trade deficit with Japan occurs in the materials and components sector, so we're trying to find concrete measures that we can suggest to Japan in this sector. We want to suggest win-win measures, as we can no longer ask Japan for a one-sided transfer of technology."
Once they finish working out measures to reduce the trade deficit, the Ministry of Knowledge-based Economy and the FKI will hold talks with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Business Federation to discuss the agenda for the upcoming Seoul-Tokyo summit.
The annual trade deficit with Japan has already passed the US$20 billion mark. The amount has snowballed every year, reaching $24.44 billion in 2004 and $29.88 billion in 2007.
A senior businessman said, "The snowballing trade deficit with Japan is the main cause of the deepening bipolarization of domestic sales and exports in the country. We're expecting good results, as the relationship with Japan is at its highest point in the last 10 years in the wake of the inauguration of the new government in Seoul."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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