Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hosts 'Han-Chung Global Economic Cooperation Forum'

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 'Korea-China Global Economic Cooperation Forum' on the 9th at the Banyan Tree Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The forum was attended by Woo Tae-hee, Executive Vice President of KCCI; Jeon Yoon-jong, Director General of the Trade Cooperation Bureau at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy; Xing Haiming, Chinese Ambassador to Korea; and Lee Dong-geun, President of the Hyundai Research Institute. However, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) domestically, the forum was broadcast live online in real time.

Kim Heung-jong, President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, delivered the keynote speech titled "Direction of Korea-China Economic Cooperation in the Biden Era," stating, "The Biden administration cannot depart from the Trump administration's tough China policy," and forecasted, "The core of the U.S. China policy is the utilization of alliances and emphasis on values, and there is a possibility of partial policy adjustments such as containment and compromise in the future."

Regarding Korea-China economic cooperation, he suggested, "It is necessary to explore industrial cooperation complexes for expanding cooperation in digital trade and non-face-to-face industries, joint response to climate change and green industry cooperation, and new industry cooperation in line with the newly changing trade environment."

Professor Nam Soo-jung of Kongju National University also said, "The U.S. pressure on China will continue even after the inauguration of the Biden administration," and added, "The recent slowdown in China's economic growth is the result of structural reforms for a growth paradigm shift," forecasting, "China is expected to establish a sustainable growth foundation while absorbing the shocks of the U.S.-China dispute to a limited extent."

Regarding Korea-China trade cooperation, Professor Kim Wook of Konkuk University emphasized, "A consensus has already been formed on cooperation between Korea's New Northern and New Southern policies and China's Belt and Road Initiative," and stressed, "While utilizing the Korea-China FTA to advance into the New Southern region through Southeast Asia, efforts should also be made to expand Korea's exports to China targeting intermediate and final goods exports from China to ASEAN countries through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)."

Professor Kim Bu-yong of Incheon National University, in relation to China's platform business, stated, "China is pursuing a dual circulation strategy that maximizes potential while continuing exports and reform and opening-up externally, and its domestic consumption market will continue to grow," and added, "It is necessary to discover new cooperation models between Korea and China in line with new consumption trend changes such as digital new consumption, O2O (Online to Offline) consumption, unmanned consumption, single-person consumption, health-related consumption, and home economy-related consumption."

Woo Tae-hee, Executive Vice President of KCCI, said, "At a time of great transformation with the reorganization of the global division of labor and the digital economy, economic cooperation between Korea and China is more necessary than ever," and added, "As the Korea-China FTA will soon mark its 5th anniversary, I hope this forum can serve as a milestone to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and create new digital business cooperation models."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.