Service Sector to Get $2.4 Bln Investment by 2013

More than three trillion won (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) will be invested by 2013 to promote service industry exports such as those of medical services, cultural content and information technology.

This is according to a plan “to promote the service industry’s penetration into foreign markets” agreed on Wednesday at a government meeting on emergency countermeasures.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea will expand loans to companies in the service sector to 350 billion won (279 million dollars) by 2013. Insurance on cultural exports for such companies will also be raised to 120 billion won (95.8 million dollars) and the comprehensive insurance for the service sector to 2.5 trillion won (2 billion dollars).

Insurance on cultural exports will be expanded from covering movies, TV dramas and games to publishing and computer graphics.

Nam Jin-ung, policy coordination director at the Strategy and Finance Ministry, said, “Government assistance has focused on manufacturing but we’ve come up with a comprehensive support measure for the service industry,” adding, “The measure will help health care, medical services, IT, and content to actively enter foreign markets.”

Service exports last year reached 58.51 billion dollars, or 13.5 percent of the country’s export volume. The figure is far less than those of advanced economies and lower than the world average of 15.1 percent for 2008.

Separately, a government program will pursue getting global recognition of domestically issued technical certificates. The cross-certification program will come first for game graphic and program technicians, wireless installation engineers, and medical and electronics engineers who have huge potential to enter overseas markets.

lovesong@donga.com