Production at joint industrial Kaesong park expands 14.4 pct in 2011

Published : Jan 23, 2012 - 10:49 Updated : Jan 23, 2012 - 10:49

The joint South-North Korean industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong saw its production expand 14.4 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, Seoul's unification ministry said Monday.

   The total production at the Kaesong Industrial Complex reached
US$369.9 million during the January-November period last year, up
from $323.3 million worth of production for all of 2010, according
to the Ministry of Unification.

   The output during the last month of 2011 has not been tallied
yet, the ministry said, adding the on-year growth rate may be far greater.

   Production for the first 11 months of 2011 marks a 25.7-percent
growth from the same period in the previous year, the ministry also
noted.

   Monthly production hit $31.1 million in January last year and
hovered near the $30-million mark every month last year, except in
February, according to the ministry.

   The ministry attributed last year's output growth to an
increasing number of workers at Kaesong.

   North Korean laborers working at the complex reached a peak of
48,708 as of November last year, the ministry said. The comparable
figure at the end of 2010 was 46,284, it said.

The sprawling complex, a key outcome of the inter-Korean summit
in 2000, marries South Korean capital and technology with cheap
labor from the North. It is now home to more than 120 South Korean
small and medium-sized companies. (Yonhap News)