Singapore and South Korea have seen significant increases in bilateral trade and investments after free trade agreement (FTA) came into effect for a year, a senior Singaporean official said in Singapore Friday.

Speaking at a bilateral business conference, Singapore's Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan urged the two sides to review the FTA for mutual benefits.

"For example, the KSFTA currently covers 74 percent of our exports to (South) Korea, we should work towards raising it to 90 percent level in subsequent review," the minister said.

In 2006, bilateral trade totaled 31 billion Singapore dollars ( about 20.4 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 10 percent over 2005, while the two countries were among the top ten trading partners to each other.

The two sides have also seen significant increases in cross investments. In 2005, South Korean investments in Singapore totaled about 185 million Singapore dollars (about 122 million U.S. dollars), while Singapore investments in South Korea amounted to about 590 million Singapore dollars (about 388 million U.S. dollars).

In 2006, Singapore investments in South Korea increased about 34 percent to around 790 million Singapore dollars (about 520 million U.S. dollars).

He also encouraged more South Korean companies to use Singapore as a gateway to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, tapping Singapore's strong network of business linkages and free trade agreements to explore opportunities in various sectors.

His another suggestion was for South Korean companies to consider investing in Singapore's electronics and petrochemicals sectors, because both countries have comprehensive range of electronics and precision engineering companies that can support high-end manufacturing wafer fabrication and integrated circuit design operations.

He also encouraged Singapore's companies to leverage on the FTA to gain tariff concessions, to enter Korean's services markets like education, environmental and courier services, as well as to bid for tender projects of Korean Central Government entities.

The two countries signed the FTA in August 2005 after seven rounds of negotiations and the FTA came into effect in March 2006.