In 2009, those of us at KIEP had designated four main research topics we deemed most pertinent to current circumstances, and engaged in twenty major projects in line with those topics. These include negotiations for liberalization of the services market and other multilateral trade issues in response to WTO regime reforms and other changes in the world trading environment; economic cooperation in APEC and other regional issues; and current bilateral trade issues including free trade agreements. KIEP conducted research to address changes in the macroeconomic environment surrounding Korea, such as changes the internationalization of the Korean won as a result of Korea's increasing prominence on the international economic scene, and presented basic resource materials and provided directions to prepare for changes in North Korea. Policy responses to global inequalities in light of the current rapid transnational movement of capital were forwarded, in addition to measures to facilitate Korea's entry into foreign markets and attract foreign investment. In recognition of rising demand for research on the world's regions, KIEP did not limit itself to providing data on Korea's major trading partners such as the US or China, but made efforts to provide basic data on Central/South America and Africa that had hitherto been lacking.