The South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the export amount from the free trade zone (FTZ) last year reached $14.9 billion.
The represented an increase of 22.5% compared to the previous year.
FTZ refers to areas that guarantee free manufacturing and trade activities to expand exports and logistics and attract foreign investment.
Benefits such as tariff exemption, zero-rate value-added tax, and rent reduction are provided. Currently, 13 locations are designated and operated domestically, including 7 industrial complexes, 5 ports, and 1 airport.
By type, the export scale was led by airport-type ($12.7 billion), industrial complex-type ($2.1 billion), and port-type ($87 million).
The airport-type saw a 29.3% increase in exports compared to the previous year as the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology highlighted the importance of data processing capabilities, leading to a surge in demand for high-performance semiconductors and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors.
Biz.Chosun
