Polish trade agency opens office in Seoul

The Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH) has opened a Foreign Trade Office in the South Korean capital Seoul, PAIH announced in a Wednesday communique. The agency added that the new office joins more than a dozen in Asia.

"With our support, Polish business will be able to develop wings on the world's most innovative market. The prospects in South Korea are especially promising for the Polish IT/ICT sector," PAIH Vice-President Krzysztof Senger said during the opening of the Seoul office, as quoted in the communique.

The press release added that the PAIH office in the South Korean capital joins a raft of more than a dozen representatives of the agency in Asia.

The Republic of Korea is the world's 11th biggest economy and is recognised as the most innovative.

"In the course of recent decades, from a country with GDP per capita at the level of 79 dollars, Korea has gained not only the name 'Asian tiger' but has set the pace of development of the high-tech sector on a global scale," Senger observed. According to him, the South Korean economic miracle has prompted a liberalisation of economic relations and ratification in 2015 of a free trade deal with the EU.

Senger noted that new transport opportunities added to the facilitation of bilateral trade exchange.

"For two years, thanks to (Polish national airline - PAP) PLL LOT, we can fly direct from Warsaw to Seoul. In turn, Gdańsk (northern Poland - PAP) has established a direct maritime connection with three Korean ports: Kwangyang, Ulsan and Busan," Senger explained.

The communique announced that last year Poland exported products to the value of USD 540 million to South Korea and bought almost USD 3.7 billion. Poland exports less processed goods characterised by lower value added. By contrast, Poland imports products of the electro-machine, chemical and metallurgical industries.