Gyeonggi FTA Utilization Support Center Receives Nationwide Top 'S Grade' for 7 Consecutive Years

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi Regional FTA Utilization Support Center recently received the highest grade, S grade, in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 'Comprehensive Evaluation of 17 Regional FTA Utilization Support Centers Nationwide.' Accordingly, the Gyeonggi FTA Center has proven its status as the nation's top FTA support center once again by receiving the S grade for seven consecutive years since 2013.

The Gyeonggi FTA Center is an 'Export Helper' institution operated by Gyeonggi Province and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to support small and medium-sized enterprises in developing sales channels through consulting and support services related to various FTA documents and laws.

Since 2011, Gyeonggi Province has divided the jurisdiction into the Gyeonggi FTA Center and the Gyeonggi Northwest FTA Center to operate the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's FTA support projects.

Last year, the Gyeonggi FTA Center carried out various activities including ▲ comprehensive FTA consultations (2,000 companies) ▲ one-on-one FTA consulting through company visits (581 companies) ▲ pre-verification consulting for certificates of origin (310 companies) ▲ regional touring education sessions (64 times) ▲ regional touring briefings (39 times) ▲ future generation talent development courses (4 times) ▲ FTA overseas market expert training courses (7 times) ▲ one-on-one FTA briefings through company visits (354 companies) ▲ company- and industry-specific meetings (4 times) ▲ distribution of FTA promotional materials.

In particular, it strengthened dedicated support for micro-enterprises by focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and sales under 3 billion KRW for one year, and conducted FTA consulting focusing on the machinery industry, which has high export amounts. It also published newsletters to spread awareness of FTA utilization.

Shin Sang-yeol, head of the Gyeonggi FTA Center, said, "Since Korea's external economic scale accounts for more than 80% of GDP, actively utilizing FTAs is essential," and added, "This year, we plan to increase the scale of support from the Gyeonggi FTA Center so that many companies can receive assistance."

This year, the Gyeonggi FTA Center expanded its consulting support target from companies with sales under 30 billion KRW in the previous year to mid-sized companies with sales under 150 billion KRW in the previous year.