130 years between Korea and Italy

Last year was a special year for Korea and Italy as it marked the 130th anniversary of the Korean-Italian diplomatic relationship. Today, Korea and Italy share similar economic features including competitiveness and global companies. Their relationship has grown in the last few decades with the bilateral volume of trade between Italy and Korea exceeding $1 billion in 1987 and expanding to $8.5 billion in 2013. However, despite the growth in bilateral trade there is still room for the economic relationship to expand as the performance of investments between Korea and Italy have not been as strong as their economic size and trade volume would indicate.