A Comparative Analysis of Export Competitiveness of Korea in the ASEAN-5 Market

This study aims to find out Korea’s comparative advantages in the ASEAN market to accelerate the deepening GVC participation and efficiency. In particular, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia were estimated to be the top trading partners, showing that higher economic cooperation among ASEAN member countries. This analysis shows that the proportion of exports between Korea and ASEAN-5 is highest in intermediate goods, and Korea’s competitive advantage (RCI) in intermediate goods is also high. Analyzing the export specialization index (TSI) between Korea and the ASEAN-5 to determine export competitiveness by item shows that it is high in petrochemical products and machinery are dominant among items with relatively strong competitiveness. This demonstrates that the trade structures of the ASEAN and Korea are complementary. Meanwhile, inter-industry trade (GLI) showed a high proportion of textiles, inorganic chemicals, electronic products, organic chemicals, copper, and rubber. In this field, Korean companies should increase their technological competitiveness to maintain export competitiveness on GVC.