Over three-thousand South Korean firms this year succeeded in exporting goods overseas for the first time, while the number of smart factories set up to renovate manufacturing has surpassed two-thousand.

The government said the prime minister chaired a national policy coordination meeting on Thursday during which the progress of key reform tasks for 2016 was examined.

During the meeting, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, in charge of checking up on reform measures in the economic sector, reported that over 31-hundred South Korean firms were successful in conducting their first overseas shipments this year.

Regarding reforms in manufacturing, two-thousand-four so-called "smart plants" were established as of July, which are factories that utilize a wider application of information technology aimed at boosting energy efficiency and automated operations.