Korea industry ministry pledges follow-up support for summit-driven export deals

South Korea's industry ministry said Monday it will strengthen joint public-private follow-up support so that economic cooperation deals reached during presidential trips abroad translate into actual exports and orders for Korean companies.

The commitment came at the fourth meeting of a task force managing the outcomes of presidential economic diplomacy, chaired by Trade Minister Park Jung-sung at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul.

At the meeting, officials cited Posco Future M's Vietnam project as an example of a summit-driven deal moving forward. The company secured approval in April for a 357 billion won ($267 million) project to build Vietnam's first secondary battery anode materials plant, during a presidential visit to the Southeast Asian country. It broke ground on the plant in July and is pursuing a diversification of its anode materials supply chain.

On shipbuilding cooperation with the United States, the ministry traced a series of steps from a memorandum of understanding signed during an August 2025 U.S. trip by HD Hyundai and Samsung Heavy Industries to strengthen shipbuilding capacity. That was followed by an MOU between the industry ministry and the U.S. Commerce Department on a shipbuilding partnership initiative in May, a consultative body on Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation investment involving policy financial institutions and the three major shipbuilders in June, and the opening of a Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation center in Washington, D.C., in July.

"The key is to follow through to the end so that the economic cooperation opportunities opened up through presidential economic diplomacy lead directly to real export and order results for our companies," Park said, adding that the government and private sector would work as one team on follow-up management and on resolving companies' difficulties.

The government plans to operate a country-by-country management system to support the implementation of cooperation projects and to seek ways to resolve obstacles through bilateral channels with relevant ministries and partner governments. Follow-up support will include business-to-business and one-on-one export consultations.