In 2011, the KRX set up a joint stock exchange in Laos in partnership with the country's central bank. The KRX owns a 49 percent stake in the bourse.

A year later, the bourse operator joined hands with Cambodia's finance ministry to establish a stock exchange in the Southeast Asian country, in which it has a 45 percent interest.

The KRX exported an IT system for Uzbekistan's stock exchange in August last year after providing advice on a law on the stock market and its operation. The KRX owns 25 percent of the Uzbek bourse.

In December, the KRX signed a contract with its Vietnamese counterpart to set up the IT infrastructure for the Southeast Asian nation's equity trading, including market information, market surveillance, and clearing and settlement.

The KRX said it has so far raked in some 83 billion won from exports of IT-related stock trading skills. The KRX ranks fifth in the world in terms of exports of a stock trading system.

"South Korea's stock market trading system, combined with the country's advanced IT skills, has a high competitive edge overseas," a KRX official said. "Exports of IT systems have enabled South Korean financial firms, IT companies and law firms to tap into those countries."

The KRX is expected to further expand its exports of IT systems down the road amid growing demand for the establishment and modernization of stock markets in emerging countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Africa, as well as resource-rich nations.

"Competition has been heating up among global bourse operators to expand their presence in emerging markets," the official said.

"The government needs to expand its support for exporters of financial infrastructure by increasing its official development assistance for the financial sector." (Yonhap)