South Korea will establish a long-term plan to attain the world’s highest credit ratings levels based on the momentum it received from the recent rating upgrades by major appraisers, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, the world’s three major appraisers, recently hiked their ratings on South Korea by a notch, citing the country’s improved fiscal soundness.

The rating on Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, however, still remains three or four steps below the top-notch “AAA,” which is held by just a few advanced countries.

“By turning the recent rating upgrades into the momentum to improve our national competitiveness, we will draw up and push for a mid and long-term plan to make the leap forward to ‘AAA,’” the ministry said in a report detailing its future policy measures to lawmakers. (Yonhap News)