Coat of arms: consists of the taeguk symbol present on the country's national flag surrounded by five stylized petals and a ribbon bearing the inscription of the official Korean name of the country (Daehan Minguk), in Hangul characters. The Taegeuk represents peace and harmony. The five petals all have meaning and are related to South Korea's national flower, the Hibiscus syriacus, or Rose of Sharon.
Flag: has three parts: a white rectangular background, a red and blue Taegeuk, symbolizing balance, in its center, and four black trigrams selected from the original eight, one toward each corner.
The flag's background is white, a traditional color in Korean culture. The color represents peace and purity. The circle in the middle is derived from the philosophy of um-yang and represents balance in the universe. The red half represents positive cosmic forces, and the blue half represents the opposing negative cosmic forces. Together, the trigrams represent movement and harmony as fundamental principles. Each trigram represents one of the four classical elements.
- Anthem: «Aegukga» is the national anthem of South Korea.
- Official languages: Korean, Korean Sign Language.
- Geographical location: it is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and lying to the east of the Asian mainland.
- Administrative divisions: the major administrative divisions in South Korea are eight provinces, one special self-governing province, six metropolitan cities (self-governing cities that are not part of any province), one special city and one metropolitan autonomous city.
- Capital: Seoul.
- Governance: South Korea has a government divided into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The executive and legislative branches operate primarily at the national level, although various ministries in the executive branch also carry out local functions. Local governments are semi-autonomous, and contain executive and legislative bodies of their own. The judicial branch operates at both the national and local levels. South Korea is a constitutional democracy.
- Population: 50.62 million.
- Currency: South Korean won.
- GDP: $1.38 trillion.
- Time zone: GMT +9.
- Telephone code: +82.
- Barcode: 880.
Trade and economic cooperation between Belarus and South Korea
South Korea imports energy (it is the second largest importer of gas in the world) and exports processed petroleum oils. The country is resource poor, so it has to import resources.
South Korea's most valuable import products:
- Auxiliary machinery;
- Electronic integrated circuits;
- SD cards;
- Cars;
- Measuring and checking instruments.
Belarusian agricultural and food products are not in demand in South Korea due to dietary habits and cultural peculiarities of the country.
Belarus's most promising food products to export to South Korea:
- Milk whey;
- Confectionery products;
- Prepared or preserved meat;
- Butter;
- Mozzarella;
- Starch;
- Spirits;
- Juices.
Belarus and Korea have many similarities in terms of economic development: the lack of rich natural resources, a focus on industry, high technology and active foreign trade. Mutual trade between Belarus and Korea is characterized by a wide range of high-tech goods on both sides.
The basis and main priorities of the Korean economy are the merger of science, technology and industry, scientific technology and the IT industry, support for green growth technologies, and the joint development of large and small businesses.
In 2014, a representative office of the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA, www.kotraminsk.by) was opened in Minsk.
In April 2017, the Republic of Korea became the eleventh trading partner with whom Belarus completed bilateral negotiations on access to markets for goods and services as part of Belarus joining the WTO.
In 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus and the Korean Exchange regarding the development of the securities market of the Republic of Belarus. Business contacts were established in the field of export risk insurance between Beleximgarant and K-SURE, the Korean export credit agency.
There are prospects in the development of cooperation with the Korea Export-Import Bank (Korea Eximbank, www.koreaexim.go.kr) and other organizations that may provide financing for individual projects aimed at the development of export-import and investment activities.
The main articles of Belarus export to South Korea in 2018:
- Electronic integrated circuits;
- Liquid crystal devices and lasers;
- Binoculars and other optical equipment;
- Measuring instruments for radiation monitoring;
- Fiberglass;
- Non-alloy steel wire;
- Instruments for physical or chemical analysis;
- Non-woven materials;
- Linen fabrics;
- Machines and mechanisms for harvesting and threshing crops;
- Carbon materials.
Integral OJSC is the main supplier in the industry; the company sells integrated circuits for the radio-electronic and automotive industries of the Republic of Korea.
Deliveries from the Republic of Korea to Belarus in 2018 are represented by the following products:
- Tires;
- Parts for cars and tractors;
- Orthopedic appliances;
- Polycarboxylic acids and their derivatives;
- Cars;
- Instruments and devices used in medicine;
- Styrene polymers;
- Machines and mechanical devices for special purposes;
- Diagnostic reagents;
- Equipment and devices for filtering liquids or gases;
- Amino compounds with an oxygen-containing functional group;
- Synthetic fibers;
- Pre-packaged medicines;
- Antibiotics.
Promising areas of cooperation with South Korean companies may include the production of drones for agricultural purposes, as well as the production of auto components, in particular steering gears, shock absorbers, braking systems, and steering systems. The creation of joint ventures on the basis of Belarusian companies could potentially open up both the South Korean market and the market of the CIS countries, the EAEU and other countries to sell products.
In 2014, SK Hynix Corporation, one of the global leaders in the production of semiconductors, established its own Softtech Flash Solutions research and development center (since June 2018 — SK Heinix Memories Solutions Eastern Europe LLC), which provides a significant share of computer services exports from Belarus to the Republic of Korea.
Among Korean companies, there is an interest in exporting to the Republic of Belarus construction services and services in the field of IT technologies.
This article has been prepared on the basis of information provided by the National Centre for Marketing and Price Study of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in the Republic of Korea, and taken from public sources. The information presented herein is for informative purposes only. In this regard, it may be useful for the companies, which have been working in Korea for a long time, as well as for those, which are going to enter this market. Any questions, feedbacks and comments concerning this article are welcome. All of them will be fully considered and taken into account, if possible. If you have any information that may be interesting and useful for the visitors of this page, please write to us.
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