Exports of modules designed to collect and process images, and show them on mobile phones and other displays surged 109 percent, with the growth of numbers of flat screen products hitting a solid 41 percent. Overseas shipments of facial masks and other cosmetics products jumped 100 percent on-year.

Besides such products, exports of airplanes, certain types of printing paper, electric welding equipment and processed lead all grew substantially.

The ministry said the average growth of the 30 types of products that showed the sharpest gains last year was 36.1 percent.

It added that many products that grew at a sharp pace were high value-added goods that fetched good prices on the market, such as multi-chip packages and solid-state drives.

The government said that based on the latest tally, efforts will be made to strengthen the country's competitiveness in consumer goods like cosmetics and certain next generation products.

It said some 3.7 trillion won ($3.25 billion) in research and development support will be injected into areas where the country needs to get further ahead of rivals. These include assistance for self-driving cars, MCPs and SSDs. (Yonhap)