By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

The slowing global economy is putting a crimp on Korea's export activities, and the picture is likely to get worse in 2009, a senior finance official said Friday.

Finance Minister Kang Man-soo also advised that to deal with what is likely to be a difficult export environment next year, ``it's time for the government to actively embrace new free trade agreements.'' He made the comment at a ministerial conference on domestic and overseas economies. In addition to Kang, several others ministers and senior officials attended the meeting, including ministers of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

``Our export activities will face a difficult environment next year,'' Kang said at the meeting. ``Ratifying and putting into place more free trade agreements as soon as we can, speeding it up even by one month's time, will greatly help our economy," he said.
In particular, Minister Kang as well as other senior officials spoke about upcoming talks for the Korea-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Currently, a bilateral discussion for the deal is scheduled for sometime next year.

Officials said a Korea-Peru FTA would be a great opportunity for the country to start expanding its trade activities, not just with Peru but also with other South American countries as well in the future.

``At the summit meeting between Korea and Peru on Nov. 21, the two sides agreed to start negotiating terms of a free trade agreement, beginning sometime next year,'' according to the finance minister.

``Peru is one of the resource-rich nations in South America and has a vast potential for future economic growth. If we can agree on a comprehensive, high-level free trade deal, it will open up an opportunity for us to expand our trading and commerce foundation with other South American and Central American countries.''

Minister Kang also spoke about the progress for the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda. He said trade-negotiation talks could resume this month and added that the government must take steps to ensure that Korea's interest and concerns get a fair hearing during upcoming negotiating rounds.

Also earlier on Friday, the finance minister dismissed persistent rumors that the country could be in for a new foreign exchange crisis next March triggered by a massive outflow of foreign currencies to Japan.

At a ministerial risk-management-and-response meeting Friday morning, Kang assured that such speculations are nothing more than unfounded rumors. Some have expressed concern, especially on the Web, that major Japanese banks could soon unload their bond holdings issued by the Korean government, to settle maturing accounts due in March. But Kang said such concerns are ``completely groundless when you look at actual numbers,'' Yonhap News Agency reported.

Kang noted that ``debts owed to Japanese banks currently stand at $10.6 billion. Of that $10.6 billion, only 9 percent or $1.1 billion will mature in the 2009 first quarter.''

michaelha@koreatimes.co.kr