At the 3rd trade and investment promotion conference held at the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX), Ilsan, Thursday (Apr. 16), President Lee said the Korean economy is as if about halfway through a tunnel, referring to the current economic crisis.

It will take a while to completely come out of the tunnel, but the economy is not without hope, thanks to the country''s trustworthy entrepreneurs, he said.

The meeting was prepared by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is in charge of national trade and industry development.

President Lee said that Korean economy depends largely on the world economy and emphasized the importance of exports to the country. Exports account for 70% of Korea''s GDP.

While promising the government''s strong support for exports, the President called for entrepreneur to engage in more active marketing and sales of their products abroad.

The Knowledge Economy Ministry reported its plan to boost national exports at the presidential conference.

Within this year, the government plans to increase national exports to three percent of the global market and make the country one of the top 10 export economies, the ministry said. The global market share of Korean exports reached 2 percent in 1988, and since then there has not been much growth.

In ways to increase exports, the government will expedite the development of new national growth engines, such as renewable energy, production of light-emitting diodes (LED), information technology services, the medical industry and new agricultural products.

Meanwhile, the national trade surplus for March was at US$4.3 billion, the highest monthly record since April 1998 ($3.8 billion), while February''s trade surplus stood at $2.9 billion.