Asia Business Summit held in Korea for the first time in 6 years... Discussions on Simplifying Immigration and Strengthening Free Trade

FKCCI Hosts 'Asia Business Summit'
Economic Leaders Representing 83% of Asia's GDP Gathered
Discussing Tasks for Asia's Shared Prosperity

The Asia Business Summit, a consultative body of major economic organizations in Asia, was held in Korea for the first time in six years since 2017. Representatives of 13 economic organizations gathered in one place to discuss various private-sector measures for economic integration and shared prosperity in Asia, including simplifying immigration procedures within the region, visa exemptions for businesspeople, supply chain cooperation, and strengthening the free trade system.

Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choo Kyung-ho and Acting Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries Kim Byung-joon attended the "2023 Asia Business Summit Welcome Dinner" held at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong on the 4th, taking a commemorative photo with heads of economic organizations. (From the front row, left to right) Sanjiv Puri, President-designate of the Confederation of Indian Industry; Kim Yoon, Chairman of Samyang Holdings; Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of the Japan Business Federation; Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choo Kyung-ho; Acting Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries Kim Byung-joon; Lim Ming Yan, Chairman of the Singapore Business Federation; Richard Osmond, Chairman of the Philippines-Japan Economic Cooperation Committee.

On the 5th, the Federation of Korean Industries (hereinafter FKI) announced that it jointly hosted the ‘12th Asia Business Summit’ with the Japan Business Federation at the FKI Conference Center at 9:20 a.m. It is the first time in six years since 2017 that the Asia Business Summit has been held in Korea. Established in 2010 under the leadership of the Japan Business Federation to promote regional economic integration, the consultative body includes 16 representative economic organizations from Asia, including the FKI, as members.

The combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the major Asian countries participating in this summit was $31.3 trillion as of 2022. This accounts for 31.2% of the global GDP ($100.2 trillion) and 82.8% of Asia’s total GDP ($37.8 trillion). About 30 participants attended, including Kim Byung-joon, Acting Chairman of the FKI in Korea; Tokura Masakazu, Chairman of the Japan Business Federation; and heads of economic organizations and businesspeople from 13 Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

At this meeting, various tasks for Asia’s joint development were discussed, including ▲simplifying immigration procedures to activate regional human exchange (designating visa-free pilot areas), ▲strengthening regional supply chain cooperation (establishing supply chain swaps), ▲cooperation among regional countries for core resource development (joint entry into Asia or third countries), ▲solidarity for sustainable economic and social development, and ▲expanding cooperation on digital transformation.

In his opening remarks, Acting Chairman Kim proposed activating human exchanges among regional countries. He said, “To activate human exchanges within the region, we propose simplifying the necessary immigration procedures by utilizing information technology such as expanding electronic passports, and in the long term, designating major cities and tourist destinations within Asian countries as visa-free pilot areas or exempting visas for businesspeople through pilot projects as a priority.”

Kim Byung-joon, Acting Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (from the left), Choo Kyung-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy, and Tokura Masakazu, Chairman of the Japan Business Federation, are toasting at the '2023 Asia Business Summit Welcome Dinner' held the previous day at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong.

In the session themed ‘Asia’s Economic Growth Strategy,’ Kim Yoon, Chairman of Samyang Holdings, suggested, “There is a need to conduct research to establish a supply chain swap that continuously shares core resource supply chains between countries.” In the session on ‘Globalization and Trade Policy,’ Ryu Jin, Chairman of Poongsan Group, called for strengthening the free trade system within Asia. He proposed enhancing standardization cooperation by applying common technical regulations within the region to alleviate and resolve trade technical barriers that hinder trade between countries.

Meanwhile, the 13 Asian economic organizations participating in this summit also adopted a joint statement based on the discussions at the meeting. The statement identified ‘human resource exchanges to strengthen mutual understanding and trust among regional countries’ as the first task toward Asia’s shared prosperity. In addition, it urged Asian countries to cooperate mutually in areas such as ▲transition to a carbon-neutral society, ▲promotion of digital transformation, ▲rebuilding an international economic order based on the rule of law, and ▲securing supply chain stability.

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