The government held an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss flagging exports following five straight months of decline while the nation posted a trade deficit for an entire year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy convened the meeting chaired by trade minister Lee Chang-yang and attended by senior officials charged with exports and investment duties at 19 government agencies.

The ministry said the meeting was held as export and investment conditions both at home and abroad continue to cause concern even though the drop in exports and the trade deficit in February were smaller than January.

Minister Lee said that government agencies must exert all-out efforts to help the private sector meet this year’s export target of 685 billion U.S. dollars, a five billion-dollar increase from the government’s initial objective set late last year.

The ministry plans to hold monthly meetings chaired by the minister to review progress in the agencies’ efforts to help exporters and meet its target.

The meeting comes a day after the ministry announced that the nation’s exports fell seven-point-five percent on-year to 50-point-one billion dollars, posting negative growth for the fifth straight month.