Korea-Australia FTA is expected to benefit from films, communication, government procurement and smart city.

- FKI(Federation of the Korean Industries) held The 35th Korea-Australia Economic Cooperation Committee.

- Discussion on business opportunity in line with Korea-Australia FTA.

As the result of Korea-Australia FTA, it is expected that the Korean companies  can enter the communication, smart city, and government procurement markets in Australia, and the cooperation in the service industry such as movies and finance between the two countries will also be strengthened.

Ohjun Kwon, the chairman of Korea-Australia Economic Cooperation Committee and the CEO of POSCO, held the 35th joint session on 2 last month in Seoul and discussed on the expansion of economic cooperation in line with the FTA. Kwon said in his opening address to expand the cooperation fields. Kwon said "it might be expected that only the petroleum goods and cars will benefit from the FTA as they take 50% of the export goods to Australia, but the other fields which have global competitiveness can also enter the Australian market." He said that metal goods, furniture and machines actually are being demanded by Australia, and if the related enterprises use this FTA, they can surely expand their exports.

A vice president of Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Heunggeong Kim asked the Korean companies' interest in the FTA as our companies can now compete freely with Australian companies in the 36 trillion won($34billion) worth Australian procurement market. Australia was not a member country of WTO Agreement on Government Procurement up to now but the discrimination against the Korean companies has now been lifted thanks to the FTA. The film industry also was chosen as a promising field between the two countries. According to Sung-eun Kim, the leader of CJ E&M's Foreign Sales Team, the cooperation for the film industry has been going on for a long time and this FTA has laid its foundation for the opportunities of mutual production and investment. The well known CGV actually is a joint venture company invested by CJ Group(Korea), Golden Harvest(Hong Kong), and Village Roadshow(Australia). CJ said that they achieved the advanced cinema management know-how through this cooperation. The Korea's third biggest cinema Megabox's principal stockholder is also an Australian financial firm Macquarie Group. Kim explained that the FTA, which includes the Joint Audio-Visual Production Agreement, has laid the foundation that the Australian capitals can flow in to the Korean film industry. For reference, Australia is the world third biggest investment fund assets attracting country. It is expected that if we use the advantages of Australia's natural environment and English language, it will help the Korean films spread to the world.

Meanwhile, Australia chose smart city as the promising field for Korean companies to enter the market. A NSW University professor Geonghoon Han explained that the demands for smart city in the social safety and education fields are increasing recently and it will be a good opportunity for Korean companies to enter the market through these fields. He also predicted the cooperation in the smart city field between the countries will be promising. If Korean companies focus on the commercialization of technology, in which field Australia is weak despite their high technology, both countries can create synergy effect. The global resource company Rio Tinto's safety manager also participated and provided a lot of help for Korean companies by introducing the know-how of Australian mine companies on how to  prevent disaster. This meeting was participated by 70 Koreans including lawmaker Hojun Geong, the president of Poongsan Group Jin Ryu, the executive vice chairman of KOTRA Seungchul Lee, and the president of Tong Yang Mulsan Heeyong Kim, and by 50 Australian government officials and businessmen including the minister of Trade and Commerce Andrew Robb, the ambassador Bill Paterson, and the president of Whitehaven Coal Mark Vaile. Korea-Australia Economic Cooperation Committee has been held yearly since 1979 and it is a representative private economic cooperation committee whose job is to discuss on the ways for economic cooperation between the two countries.