K-SURE union calls for halt to relocation plan, warns of damage to export finance competitiveness

The labor union of the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation urged the government Tuesday to immediately halt any review of relocating the agency outside Seoul, warning that such a move would undermine the country's export finance competitiveness and run counter to the policy goals of balanced regional development and establishing Seoul as an "economic capital."

The union made the call at a joint press conference with the Korea Development Bank union held in front of Cheong Wa Dae Sarangchae in Jongno-gu, Seoul. "While we share the vision of balanced national development and the direction of making Seoul an economic capital, weakening the competitiveness of K-SURE — the country's central export finance institution — would in fact conflict with those very policy goals," the union said.

Union Chairman Park Hong-cheol said that if the government intends to support balanced development through finance and build Seoul into an economic capital, it should be strengthening K-SURE's world-class export finance capabilities, not eroding them. "K-SURE's financial competitiveness is rooted in the concentration and interconnection of its functions," he said. "Forcibly dispersing and relocating the agency based on a one-dimensional standard such as minimizing staff retention would be detrimental to both balanced development and national competitiveness."

The union said K-SURE is not a support agency for any particular region but rather "national export finance infrastructure" that provides comprehensive backing for state policy priorities — including export expansion — as well as large-scale overseas contracts in defense, nuclear power, shipbuilding and plant industries, while also contributing to balanced regional development.

The union added that export finance through K-SURE is already embedded in President Lee Jae-myung's policy agenda for expanding exports and nurturing regional growth engines, with the government treating the agency as a common national export finance tool spanning all regions.

The union went on to say that K-SURE's export finance ecosystem encompasses legal, accounting and financial advisory functions needed to structure financing terms for overseas projects worth trillions of won and to handle negotiations among diverse domestic and foreign financial participants. "In particular, K-SURE's role in channeling foreign currency from international financial markets into large-scale overseas projects — without the need for foreign borrowing — aligns with the direction Seoul should pursue as an economic capital by broadening its international finance base," the union said.

The union also said that public export credit agencies operated by countries around the world to boost their own export competitiveness are mostly located in financial centers, and noted that K-SURE was reported to the US Congress last year as the world's most competitive export finance institution.

The union pointed to the United Kingdom as an example, noting that while the British government is pursuing a policy of decentralizing government functions — known as Places for Growth — its export credit agency, UK Export Finance, remains based in London, citing the need to leverage the city's financial competitiveness.

Park urged an immediate halt to what he called a hasty relocation push that fails to understand the role of core national policy finance functions, severs the sources of their competitiveness, and conflicts with the government's key economic policy direction.

Park Sang-jun, a labor director at K-SURE, said that given the significant impact the relocation would have on the agency's future and employees' working conditions, sufficient consultation with those directly affected must come first.

An employee representative said she had recently started her married life and noted that public institution employees are citizens and workers too. "I believe we are naturally among those who deserve to be respected and heard," she said.

She appealed for the agency to be freed from the controversy and anxiety surrounding an inefficient relocation so that staff can focus fully on their core mission of export finance.

After the press conference, the union formally submitted to the presidential office's public listening secretariat a petition signed by all K-SURE employees calling for the agency's complete exclusion from the second round of public institution relocations.