Earticle

Semiconductor is a key for the ICT field particularly in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Because ICT often represents national power today, it is related to the modern-day global hegemony. While the United States (US) has maintained its unrivaled competitiveness in the product ever since its invention, Japan and Korea made challenges to it in the 1980s and 1990s respectively. Though the US ended the cases using both unilateral trade pressures and multilateral WTO dispute settlement mechanism, it let Korea to dominate the DRAM in the end. The recent advent of the Chinese interest in this industry is thus never welcomed. In the G2 rivalry, the US aims at defeating the Chinese attempt on semiconductor industry. Well understanding the importance of semiconductor in the hegemonic competition, the US is in fact a tough opposite for China, because it is equipped with past lessons and number of aggressive trade measures against this non-market economy.

The present paper analyzes the trade interdependence among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) using the most recent international trade matrix for the period 1995-2018. Russia exhibits the highest trade influential coefficients during the whole period and it influences and contributes the most to the trade of the other members of the CIS. Kazakhstan and Ukraine also have high trade influential coefficients, though Ukraine exhibits a lower coefficient after 2014. Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have the highest trade sensitivity coefficients for the entire period. Moldova and Ukraine also exhibit high trade sensitivity coefficients before falling below one at the end of the period. The trade structure test, which combines the trade influence and sensitivity coefficients, shows that if in the 1990s Russia was the only country with an independent trade structure, in 2018 Kazakhstan also stays along with Russia, moving from a dependent trade structure to an independent trade structure in the CIS. All other countries, except Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Ukraine, show a dependent trade structure within the CIS in 2018. Uzbekistan is on the verge between enhanced and dependent trade.

This study conducted an IPA (Importance-Performance Analysis) on the importance of consideration factors before entering the port hinterland and satisfaction of consideration factors after moving in to Busan Port and Gwangyang Port. As a result, the most important factors for occupant companies in port hinterland complex of Busan Port are rent, port proximity, and potential logistics cost reduction. The most important factors for resident companies in Gwangyang Port's port hinterland are rent, hinterland and FTZ size. Both Busan and Gwangyang port hinterland companies consider the port proximity and rent when entering the port hinterland, and are satisfied with the port proximity, customs clearance and administrative convenience after entering the port hinterland. However, there is a need for support such as rent and continuous supply of skilled human resources.

Despite much research being conducted on the efficiency of ports, there is little information available on the efficiency of container terminals that constitute these ports. The purpose of this study is to propose an efficient operation method for terminals by comparing and analyzing the efficiency of 18 container terminals that recorded high berth productivity in 2013. The technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency of each terminal were measured using data envelopment analysis. For efficiency analysis, terminal area, berth length, and a number of C/C were used as input variables and the number of containers moving per hour was used as the output variable. Of the 18 terminals analyzed, the Total Terminals International - Pier T, Ningbo Gangji (Yining) Terminal, and Tianjin Five Continents International Container Terminal were the most efficient.

For development of state economy and invigoration of domestic market, it is necessary to expand small and medium-sized enterprises abroad and encourage their growth. In that sense, this study compared Korea's export support system and export support systems of other countries to promote invigoration of exports by SMEs in Jeju Island. The purpose is proposing implications and system ideas. The export support system of Jeju Island needs to make the following improvements. First, it is necessary to make an improvement in the manner of organizing a virtuous cycle of "plan, discovery, support, evaluation, and plan". Second, it is necessary to use retired experts in the field of trade. Third, it is necessary to invigorate exports by utilizing professional trading company. Fourth, it is necessary to organize a trade cluster through which schools, enterprises, governmental organizations, and so on can conduct joint researches and projects. Fifth, it is necessary to invigorate processing trade since primary products have limitations in terms of space and distance. The limitation of this study is that it suggested implications only based on literature review and not collect opinions or conduct surveys targeting SMEs. Follow-up study will supplement such a limitation.

This study investigates the impact of SMEs and mid-sized firms’ R&D investment decision on export decision in the Korean electronics industry, and compares the size of the impact between subcontracting firms and independent firms. For empirical analysis, we estimate a dynamic structural model using plant-level panel data for the Korean electronics industry from the period 2012-2017. The empirical findings shows that subcontracting firms are slightly superior to independent firms in terms of the impact of R&D investment on exports. This result indirectly supports the fact that there are considerable number of subcontracting firms in Korea despite unfair subcontracting practices with large firms.