The 5th Regional Economic Cooperation Joint Committee Meeting Held to Announce 13 Agenda
Incheon and Weihai of China, which are the pilot areas for the South Korea and China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), continue their economic cooperation.
Incheon held the 5th Regional Economic Cooperation Joint Committee meeting in the new city hall building with the delegation from the city of Weihai, China, on the 5th.
After the signing of the South Korea and China Free Trade Agreement in June 2015, Incheon and Weihai has been designated as the pilot areas for the said free trade agreement and, in July of the same year, signed the Agreement on Strengthening the Regional Economic Cooperation between Incheon and Weihai. After the signing of this agreement, the two cities selected seven areas with a total of 41 key projects, covering trade, e-commerce, tourism, and sports, etc., signing further agreements for the subsectors and having been engaged invarious pilot programs.
Until now, the two cities have been discussing how they would strengthen their economic cooperation and the meeting today was the fifth meeting of the committee. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the meeting was conducted online.
▲ Incheon held the 5th Regional Economic Cooperation Joint Committee meeting with the delegation from Weihai, China, in the new city hall building on 5th. Until now, the two cities have been discussing the strategies to strengthen their cooperation, and the meeting held on that day was the fifth of meeting of the committee.
The meeting was attended by the officials from eight departments of Incheon, including the Department of Industrial Promotion of Incheon and ten related departments of Weihai, including the Commerce Department, to announce the thirteen proposed projects covering trade, logistics, intellectual property rights, health, medicine, and tourism, etc., and discussed the promotion strategies for each of these areas.
Especially, for the first time since the beginning of the meeting in 2017,the meeting was joined by the officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea and the Ministry of Commerce of China, indicating that the interest in and the role of the committee is expanding gradually.
As such, the topics discussed during the meeting and other exchange projects of Incheon for China became more likely to be discussed with the central government.
The key agenda proposed by Incheon included the cooperation request forthe duplicated issuance of the Certificate of Country of Origin applicable to the South Korea and China FTA and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), suggestion on the strengthening of the registration management of the overseas manufacturers of the imported food products of China, supporting the selected food manufacturers of Incheon to develop business opportunities in China; jointly developing products and increasing exchange activities in the fields of medicine and tourism; suggestion of the opening of a new international voyage route between Baengnyeongdo Island of Incheon and Weihai; the plans for increasing the cooperation efforts since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues the companies of Incheon had in their trade with China.
In return, Weihai announced seven agendas, which were, respectively, strengthening the cooperation between the two cities; strengthening the exchanges for the overseas talents with Incheon, especially with Incheon National University; promoting the selected e-commerce companies of Incheon to participate in the bonded business districted and holding regular seminars; strengthening the exchange efforts in medical technology areas with Incheon, etc.
