Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Consultation Is To Open

Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Consultation Office for the small and medium business, where the South business persons meet the North related officials to discuss in person the economic cooperation projects, will be established in the Mt. Keumkang area in this year.

The experts of the Small and Medium Industry Promotion Corporation will support the South small and medium business corporations with the technical aids and management consultation.

The Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) will have a meeting for the inter-Korean economic cooperation of the small and medium business and decide the measures to promote the inter-Korean business cooperation.

A related source of the SMBA analyzed that, ``once the economic cooperation office opens in Mt. Keumkang area, [South business persons], who had to detour to a third country to visit the North and had to hire a third agent to discuss with the North related officials, will save much time and expenses at the first stage of the cooperation projects.``

The SMBA will dispatch experts to the North to assist the small and medium business who would want the management consultation and technical support such as the factory repairs and maintenances, quality improvement, and so on. The consulting fee will be around 100 thousand won per a day, which is the same price charged to the businesses in the South for a consultation by the SMBA.

In addition, the SMBA will add a new site for the information related with the inter-Korean cooperation in its homepage (www.smba.go.kr) and will publish the overall information, which is collected and provided by the Unification Ministry, National Intelligence Service, Korea Trade-Promotion Investment Agency, such as the related laws and the procedures and the forms of permissions.

By the end of April, the number of the inter-Korean cooperation business approved by the Inter-Korean exchange and cooperation law hit 41 including 7 small and medium business companies. The total volume of the inter-Korean trade is 170.7 million dollars, which is 1.7 percent increased from the same period of the last year.

Kim Sang-Chul sckim007@donga.com