(Photo : President Lee Myung-bak talks to CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo on Mar. 31.)

Korea is expected to record a trade surplus of 15 to 20 billion won (11 to 15 million U.S. dollars) by the year''s end, influenced by stabilizing export figures since January, President Lee Myung-bak said to CNBC, a business news network in the United States, on Mar. 31 (London time).

Lee''s interview was broadcast through CNBC''s news programs -- Squawk Box Europe, World Wide Exchange, and Closing Bell -- the next day.
 

Lee said Korea''s successful overcoming of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s would be helpful for the failing economy worldwide, and said he would emphasize the liquidation of impaired assets and expansion of fiscal spending in the G20 meeting.
 

In late 1997, the Korea Asset Management Corporation liquidated all impaired assets and the shareholders, managers, workers and asset holders took their fair share of responsibility, added the President.
 

For the next five to ten years, Korean entrepreneurs, who are risk-taking and aggressive, will focus on green industry development and nurture it as a new growth engine, Lee said in regards to Korea''s earnest engagement in the exploitation of clean and renewable energy.
 

President Lee said that, as a member nation of the G20 meeting''s management troika, Korea was expecting agreements on the expansion of fiscal spending, elimination of bad assets, financial support for emerging economies, and strengthened supervision of credit rating agencies and tax havens.
 

The President said he would emphasize to the G20 leaders that they should avoid returning to protectionism under any circumstances. The World Trade Organization should keep an eye on the emergence of new trade barriers of any kind, and release regular updates on them, he added. He also said the world economy should never go back to the era of the Great Depression in the 1930s, when it was negatively affected by protectionism.
 

Turning to the Korea-EU FTA, Lee said striking a deal would contribute to the revival of the world economy by increasing the volume of free trade, at a time when the majority of nations are rejecting trade protectionism.