Attracting Chinese Firms to Saemangeum
South Korea and China have agreed to create a new industrial cluster in the Korea-China Industrial Cooperation Complex located in Saemangeum, an estuarine tidal flat on Korea’s southwestern coast.
The agreement was reached at a meeting between the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea and the Ministry of Commerce of China, which was held in Yancheng, China on June 12. Korea was represented by Kim Chang-kyu, head of the ministry’s Office of International Trade and Legal Affairs. His Chinese counterpart was Vice Minister Gao Yan.
According to the South Korean ministry, the meeting was designed to explore avenues for more specific and practical economic cooperation between the two countries based on the South Korea-China summit in December last year.
The two countries are going to build the new industrial cluster as a pilot project for joint development of the Saemangeum Industrial Complex. The cluster will accommodate companies producing high-quality consumer goods such as cosmetic and food products, robots and healthcare products. South Korea and China are planning to launch a series of similar projects in the cluster, too. China promised to send an enterprise delegation to the region so that more Chinese companies can invest in the complex.