BUSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(BUSAN=Yonhap News) Hundreds of political leaders, businessmen and government officials from South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered in this southeastern port city on Thursday to discuss how to deepen their economic and business ties.

The CEO summit between the two sides was held on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Korea commemorative summit to find ways to enhance economic cooperation and co-prosperity.

The leaders from the group of 10 Southeast Asian countries are in Busan to attend the two-day special summit hosted by South Korean President Park Geun-hye to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations.

"Over the 25 past years, trade and investment between Seoul and ASEAN has undergone rapid growth," Moon Jae-do, vice minister of South Korea's trade, industry and energy, told a press conference.

ASEAN is seeking to launch the ASEAN Community by the end of 2015 as part of its efforts to deepen integration in the region. ASEAN is a large single market of more than 600 million people with a combined economic output of about $2.4 trillion.

The creation of the ASEAN Economic Community, one of three pillars for the ASEAN Community, has been pursued in order to expand economic cooperation in an array of fields such as human resources development, education and financial policies.

"If the economic community is created, ASEAN is expected to emerge as a single market with gross domestic product of $3 trillion and a population of about 640 million," Moon said. "This move will provide various business opportunities to Korean companies."

Moon said that Seoul's economic cooperation with ASEAN is expected to become more important as its core economic partner has huge potential as a consumer market and production base for companies.

ASEAN is South Korea's No. 2 investment destination and second-largest trade partner, with two-way trade amounting to $135 billion last year, sharply up from $8.2 billion in 1989, according to government data.

The CEO summit, which brought together some 570 participants from the two sides, came at a time when the global economy is showing signs of sputtering amid China's slowdown.

Major advanced economies such as Japan and Europe have been ramping up their monetary easing to support the growth and emerging economies, once viewed as a growth engine for the global economy, have also faced economic slowdown.

"The global economy stands at (a juncture) to find where to find the growth engine that can revitalize itself," Park Yong-man, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said during his opening remarks for the meeting.

He said that ASEAN has been playing an important role in backing up the global economy by growing at an average of 5 to 7 percent every year, even since the 2008 global financial crisis.

"Now it is time for local businessmen to be proactive on the basis of South Korea's free trade agreement with ASEAN," he added.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

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