For Digital Single Market
The South Korean government announced on November 26 that its joint research with the Chinese and Japanese governments for Digital Single Market establishment is scheduled to be completed next month and then the economic and trade ministers of the three countries will have a meeting to prepare action plans for digital economic cooperation.
The Digital Single Market is for the three countries to conduct e-commerce transactions without discrimination by tearing down technical barriers. The use of a common electronic currency, a single set of rules regarding purchase and refund, and so on are included in the concept.
The heads of the three countries declared the establishment of the Digital Single Market two years ago and the joint research project was initiated early this year by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). The joint research focused on the analysis of how the three countries’ e-commerce environments, laws, and regulations are similar to or different from one another, but the research has shown little progress since China’s economic retaliation for THAAD deployment in South Korea. The result of the research is likely to include the preparation of a framework for continuous trilateral cooperation.
The meeting of the ministers is scheduled for early next year and the agendas of the meeting include specific action plans for the Online Silk Road to connect the three countries. The meeting has not been held for over a year since August last year due to the THAAD conflict, which is waning these days.
The Online Silk Road, a concept proposed by China, is to reach a higher level of cooperation between the digital industries of South Korea and China. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance of South Korea and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to that end last year. Its key ideas include e-commerce expansion, appointment of partner cities, technological cooperation in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector including smart city, and ICT-based joint business in third countries.
The development of the Online Silk Road concept has shown little progress for the same reason as well. However, various issues are likely to be discussed in depth at the upcoming meeting, including the WI Coin project with Weihai City that was proposed last year by Incheon City. The two cities were selected as e-commerce cooperation partners earlier.