This year's growth in South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products will far exceed a government forecast on the back of strong global demand, the commerce ministry said.

Overseas shipments of IT products are likely to jump 24.8 per cent this year from a year earlier, much higher than its previous growth projection of 14 per cent, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.

The ministry, however, didn't say the expected value of this year's IT exports.

In the first nine months of the year, the country sold USD 113.4 billion worth of IT products in overseas markets, up 32 per cent from the same period last year, according to the ministry.

The trade surplus of the country's IT industry in the cited period reached USD 58.5 billion, nearly double the amount of some USD 29.3 billion the country made through trading during the same period, meaning that the IT industry has more than made up for losses of other industrial sectors.

The ministry, however, said the growth of the country's IT exports will likely slow down during the remainder of the year due to increased inventories and competition, marking an annual growth of 24.8 per cent from that of 2009.

The government has announced a series of measures aimed at promoting and assisting the development of new technologies and products. They include a USD 10.6 billion project to develop and commercialize 10 new materials, including plastic sheets for flexible display. Such measures were to be finalized and approved by an IT advisory council later today.

"Right now when our IT industry is showing its best performance is when we must strengthen the foundation of our IT industry," Economy Minister Choi Kyoung-hwan was to tell an advisory council meeting later in the day.