Zheng Xinli Meets with Chairman of Korean Center for International Finance

Zheng Xinli Meets with Chairman of Korean Center for International Finance

On November 5, 2012, Mr. Zheng Xinli, Permanent Vice Chairman of CCIEE, met with Mr. Taek Soo Han, Chairman of Korean Center for International Financial. Also at the meeting were Mr. Xu Chaoyou, Director-General of the External Affairs Department at CCIEE, Mr. Cheong Young Rok, Minister Counselor of Korean embassy to China.

Mr. Zheng briefed Mr. Han on China’s economic situation and the policies and measures for its future development. He said that the next ten years is crucial for China to transform itself from a middle-income country to a high-income one. Thus, China needs to push ahead with economic reform. Particularly, it should focus on upgrading industrial structures, narrowing the urban-rural income gap, balancing investment-consumption ratio and improving the service industry. Regarding the challenges that China faced in the process of economic development, such as income distribution, taxation and urban-rural management, it is putting forward a host of reforms to tackle them.

On the China-Korea free trade agreement(FTA), Mr. Zheng pointed out that regional and bilateral liberalization are mainstreams of international trade. Accelerating the negotiation on China-Korea FTA and promoting the establishment of China-Korea bilateral free trade zone are thus in line with the trend of international trade development. Korea could be a source of agricultural products for China, a big importer, and, a big consumer. China and Korea could complement each other in terms of much needed goods. The trade of agricultural products should not be the barrier to bilateral free trade. In addition, China’s manufacturing competence of electronics, automobile and machinery is relatively weak, compared with that of Korea. China, far from being the world manufacturing, is starting to develop into a huge consumer market. The establishment of China-Korea free trade zone will provide Korea’s companies with better investment environment when setting up factories in China and rev up China’s exports growth. Therefore, the successful launch of FTA will bring benefits to both countries. 

Mr. Han thanked Mr. Zheng for sharing his views and thoughts and said that he, as an advisor to the China-Korea bilateral FTA, is willing to propel the establishment of the bilateral free trade zone.