Korea sets up joint service-export certification through trade platform

South Korea's industry ministry said Tuesday that six trade and industry organizations signed an agreement to link service-export certification to a shared trade platform, part of efforts to ease the paperwork burden on exporters as the country approaches $1 trillion in annual exports.

The Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Creative Content Agency, the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, the Korea Artificial Intelligence and Software Industry Association, the Korea Shipowners' Association and the Korea Tourism Association signed the memorandum of understanding at the Trade Tower in Samseong-dong, Seoul.

Under the agreement, the organizations will connect their service-export certification channels to the trade association's next-generation trade platform, which is under construction, and build a joint review system using artificial intelligence. They also plan to overhaul the classification system for export records to reflect the characteristics of sectors such as content and software, and to link that data with export support programs including trade insurance.

Demand for such a system has grown as the popularity of Korean content and the broader Korean wave has raised the importance of service exports, but certification bodies are split by industry and information sharing among them has been limited, forcing companies to submit supporting documents separately when they apply for trade insurance and other support programs.

"Ahead of the era of $1 trillion in exports, it is important to broaden the export base not only to goods such as semiconductors and automobiles but also to service fields such as content and software," said Kang Gam-chan, head of the trade and investment office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, in congratulatory remarks.

"We will overhaul trade infrastructure so that service exporters can conveniently certify their export records and use them in various support programs such as trade finance," he said.

The ministry said it will continue to identify difficulties facing service exporters and push ahead with improvements to related systems, including export certification.