Korean, Japanese businesses to form study group for cooperation in energy, batteries, chips

KCCI Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee, fifth from left, poses with Mitsui Korea CEO Kazuhiro Iguchi, sixth from left, and other Korean and Japanese businessmen after a meeting at the KCCI building in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of KCCI

By Kim Hyun-bin

Korean and Japanese businessmen have established a study group to find new areas of economic cooperation in areas including energy, batteries and semiconductors, according to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Thursday.

The KCCI and the Seoul Japan Club (SJC) held a meeting at the KCCI building in Seoul.

"Through the Korea-Japan Economic Cooperation Study Meeting, we decided to figure out the areas of cooperation between the two economic circles and create the best operation method,” the KCCI said.

Attending from the KCCI's side were Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee and executives from four major conglomerates ― Samsung Electronics, SK Supex, Hyundai Motor and LG.

The Seoul Japan Club was represented by Mitsui Corp. Korea CEO Kazuhiro Iguchi and Toshinobu Sato, a senior executive vice president of Mitsubishi Corp. Korea, among others.

“As Korea-Japan cooperation is facing a new turning point, it is an opportunity to upgrade economic cooperation between the two countries to the next level,” Woo said.

The Seoul Japan Club, established in 1997, is the largest Japanese community in Korea with more than 1,600 corporate and individual members, making business policy proposals and supporting Korea-Japan exchanges.

"Economic cooperation at the private level should take a step forward, and companies should take the lead,” entrepreneurs from the two countries who attended the meeting said in a statement.

In addition, they decided to actively participate in the Korea-Japan Economic Cooperation Study Group formed by the KCCI on April 13.

"We need a study group to discover cooperative tasks centering on energy, batteries and semiconductors between Korean and Japanese companies," said Kim Kyu-pan senior researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. "The bilateral supply chain cooperation will be strengthened, and the effect of economic cooperation will be high in the digital field centered on communication infrastructure and personnel exchanges, and in the green transformation field such as carbon neutrality and hydrogen technology."