The Ministry of Environment has assisted local companies in the environmental industry in opening up overseas markets since 2009. Now, it is witnessing some visible results coming up. The ministry recently announced that it has offered government subsidies worth 17.4 billion won to that end for the last two years and the cumulative exports of the beneficiaries are at around 210.1 billion won, proving that the environmental industry is a new promising growth driver of the nation. The total exports of the country’s environmental industry are approximately 2.5 trillion won as of 2009. Though the sum is rather small compared with other sectors’, noteworthy is the pace of annual growth at an average of 26.2% during the last half a decade. Korean environmental companies’ major export destinations include the Middle East, G8 nations, China and Africa. Their leading export items are sewage treatment facilities, anti-atmospheric pollution and biomass power generation equipment, etc.