S. Korea needs key component tech boost to cut trade deficit with Japan

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea needs to boost key component technology
and nurture smaller companies to close the country's chronic trade deficit with
Japan, a central bank report showed Wednesday.
South Korea's trade shortfall with Japan reached 29.9 billion in 2007, sharply up
from $24.4 billion in 2005, researchers at the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in the
report. In the January-August period of this year, the trade deficit amounted to
$23.2 billion and imports of Japanese industrial parts comprised over 60 percent
of the shortfall.
"South Korea's continued trade deficit with Japan results from a lack of key
technology in the local component industry, and there has been a social and
cultural difference in terms of public awareness about the manufacturing sector,"
the report said.
To address this problem, Asia's fourth-largest economy needs to develop
technology and to seek a long-term plan to nurture human resources and beef up
global competitiveness, the BOK said.