SOUTH KOREAN trade officials say they are confident of rapidly ramping up trade volume with Myanmar in the next five years, with the signals resonating from last month’s Korea-ASEAN CEO Summit positive.

Mr Park Key-chong, South Korea’s ambassador to Myanmar, said during a meeting on June 17 at Chatrium Hotel with those who attended the earlier summit that South Korea has pledged to increase its trading with all ASEAN nations, including Myanmar.

“In 2008, trade volume between ASEAN and South Korea stood at US$90 billion. We hope to increase that to $150 billion in 2015,” Mr Park Key-chong said.

Mr Park Kil Chae, the embassy’s first secretary, said that South Korea is keen to increase its involvement in Myanmar.

“The trade volume between the two countries was $360 million in 2008 which is a very small portion of overall trade,” he said, adding that this figure had actually declined from $373 million in the previous year.

However, there are strong indications that 2009 will prove more productive: The two countries signed sale contracts totalling $182 million in fields of agriculture, cosmetics and information technology on June 1 at the CEO summit on Jeju Island in South Korea. This summit included 45 local business figures.

During the summit a number of South Korean companies displayed interest in investing in Myanmar’s mining and energy fields.

Mr Park Key-chong highlighted foreign direct investment (FDI) as a sector that could be increased.

He said there are about 100 South Korean companies who have made FDI in Myanmar; these total about $243 million, with the biggest expenditures made in the energy, manufacturing and trading sectors. That investment, he said, represented less that 2 percent of his nation’s FDI worldwide.

“We have a short- and long-term strategy to increase trade and economic cooperation between our nations,” he said.

The short-term strategy is to develop trade and business links through exchanging trade delegation visits, while the long-term plan is to diversify into energy and mining, he added.

He highlighted labour-intensive industries, such as garment manufacturing, as likely investment opportunities, adding that half the Korean companies operating in Myanmar are working in textiles.

“South Korean investors in the garment industry employ more than 37,000 local workers,” Mr Park Kil Chae said.

The export earnings from this industry amounted to $30 million in 2007 and remained the same in 2008.

“Our investors are optimistic that the situation will improve after 2010,” he said.

U Kyaw Win, the president of Myanmar Gold Entrepreneurs’ Association, who participated in the Chatrium meeting on June 17, said his industry could handle some South Korean cooperation.

“We focussed our discussions with the South Korean businesspeople on the prospect of manufacturing new gold jewellery and what trading opportunities could be created,” he said.

“We have skilful craftsmen and our labour wages are relatively low, while the South Koreans have modern technology. If we can combine these inputs we’ll be able to produce some quality products for both of our markets.

“We’ve invited some South Korean companies to invest in our industry and they seem willing,” said U Kyaw Win, who is also a leading gold jewellery manufacturer in Myanmar. He said he had already received one offer of cooperation from a South Korean company.

The bilateral trade figures show that Myanmar has a trade surplus with South Korea, with high import duties seen as hindering greater imports from South Korea,

In 2007, this figure amounted to $211 million, which had shrunk to $128 million in 2008.