'G20 Attendance' Choo Kyung-ho Meets Indonesian and Singapore Finance Ministers... "Strengthening Economic Cooperation Among Regional Countries"

[Asia Economy Bali (Indonesia) = Reporter Kim Hyewon] On the 15th (local time), Choo Kyung-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, who is attending the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, held meetings with key figures attending the meeting, including the finance ministers of Indonesia and Singapore.

On the 16th, the second day of the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Choo is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Finance Minister of India, the G20 chair country for next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo first met with Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Finance Minister of Indonesia and the chair of this year's G20, to discuss the achievements and future plans of the G20, as well as economic cooperation between the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo highly praised Indonesia for excellently fulfilling its role as the G20 chair despite difficult conditions such as the Ukraine war and global inflation, and stated that Korea will actively participate in global cooperation for the recovery of the world economy, including the restoration of free trade and the restructuring of supply chains. He also urged Indonesia, as the G20 chair, to actively respond to export controls that cause global economic instability.

Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Choo expressed hope for close cooperation between Korea, a technology powerhouse, and resource-rich Indonesia amid the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains. In particular, since representative companies in Korea's major industries such as automobiles, batteries, chemicals, and steel are investing in supply chains in Indonesia, he emphasized strengthening supply chain cooperation that harmonizes Indonesia's upstream resources with Korea's downstream technology. This year, Hyundai Motor completed a finished car factory in Indonesia, and LG Energy Solution invested in a battery consortium with local state-owned enterprises.

Minister Sri Mulyani agreed with Deputy Prime Minister Choo's proposal and expressed hope for active Korean investment in the green economy transition, including eco-friendly power generation and automobiles. Lastly, Deputy Prime Minister Choo mentioned Busan, which submitted a bid to host the 2030 Expo last year, under the theme "The Great Transformation of the World, a Voyage Toward a Better Future," emphasizing that Korea, with its past development experience and advanced technology, has the capability to address international challenges such as climate change and the digital divide, and requested support for Busan in the vote to select the host city for the 2030 Expo scheduled for November next year.

On the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Choo met with Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, and agreed on strengthening economic cooperation among regional countries. Since June this year, Wong has concurrently served as Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and is considered a leading candidate for the next Prime Minister.

Lawrence Wong conveyed that since both countries are digital powerhouses, they should continuously cooperate in activating the digital economy and setting norms. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Choo said that since both countries are founding members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), they should work together to improve the regional trade environment, and explained that Korea is proceeding smoothly with domestic procedures such as economic feasibility assessments under trade treaty laws to participate normally in IPEF.

Regarding recent global economic instability, Deputy Prime Minister Choo emphasized that while managing the crisis through an appropriate combination of fiscal and monetary policies is important, it is fundamentally necessary to enhance economic productivity through structural reforms in labor and public sectors. Lawrence Wong expressed agreement with Deputy Prime Minister Choo's remarks and said that Singapore is also focusing on education fields such as vocational training.

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