In response to the Park Geun-hye administration’s economic slogan of creative economy, the Korea Trade Insurance Corp., or K-sure, has decided to optimize its role as a state-run trade financier.

“It is our duty as a state-run organization to actively discover potential champions and to help them step into the global market,” K-sure president Cho Kye-ryoong told The Korea Herald in an interview.

The public corporation ambitiously kicked off this week the Global Growth Ladder Program, a multi-stage export financing project aimed at nurturing local champions into global players.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, its affiliated organizations, as well as some of the major commercial banks, K-sure is to offer a comprehensive set of financial benefits to the selected 174 local exporting companies.

“The Global Growth Ladder Program is, in a way, an extended version of the conventional trade promotion system but it is not just a quantitative expansion,” Cho said.

Under the Trade Champs Club system, only companies with a yearly export performance of $50 million or more could benefit from most of the governmental support.

“It is, however, the smaller hidden champions that have higher potential of growth in the global market, if only with the right support,” the K-sure chief said.

This is why K-sure classified the beneficiaries into three groups ― the Trade Beginners Club for export novices achieving less than $1 million per year, the Trade Small Giants Club for those ranking in between $1 million and $20 million, and the conventional Trade Champs Club, he added.

“Commercial banks would generally not take the risk of investing in these small-sized hidden champions,” he said.

“With the full support of the ministry and the financial management of K-sure, however, they are willing to offer benefits such as lower loan interest rates.”

The program is also an unprece-dented model example of a three-way cooperation ― of the MOTIE, its affiliated export promotion agencies, and commercial banks, he explained.

“The government has long striven to take the nation’s export industry to a higher level but its efforts have always taken place sporadically,” he said.

For example, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency would select small export companies and offer them opportunities to display their contents in the overseas market, but has few means to prove the consequent export performances, Cho said.

Also, other state-affiliated organizations tend to remain passive in selecting the beneficiaries for their export promotion programs, due to budget limits and trade risks.

“K-sure, however, may achieve the deed at a minimized risk as its role is to establish a trade insurance system, not to offer a direct financial subsidy,” the K-sure president said.

Even when the corresponding companies experience a trade deficit, the losses would not deliver a direct blow to them or on the nation’s economy, he said.

K-sure first kicked off back in 2010 under its former name Korea Export Insurance Corp., aiming at providing comprehensive support for international transactions in line with the country’s growing dependence on trade.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)