Business leaders from Korea, Japan, China call for trilateral economic partnerships

Chey Tae-won, center, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), claps hands with Ren Hongbin, right, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and Masakazu Tokura, president of Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, after signing a joint agreement on the sidelines of the 8th Korea-Japan-China Business Summit at the KCCI headquarters in Seoul, May 27. Yonhap

Businesspeople from Korea, Japan and China have shared a common view on the need for their partnerships for economic vitalization and supply chain stabilization, according to a survey conducted by a major business lobby group here, Sunday.

A group of 181 business leaders from the three nations responded to the survey on the sidelines of their recent trilateral business summit in Seoul.

They picked economic vitalization as the biggest potential outcome that can be generated from their trilateral economic partnerships, with more than 47 percent voting for the category. The stabilization of supply chains came in second with 41.2 percent.

By region, Korea and Japan expected their economic vitalization as the key expected effect of a partnership, while more than 80 percent of Chinese businesspeople voted supply chain stabilization as the most desirable outcome of the ties with Korea and Japan.

"It was confirmed that the major CEOs of the three countries have a consensus close to certainty on the necessity and positive effects of economic cooperation," Park Il-jun, executive vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.

"We plan to develop joint research projects to implement each country's priority tasks and expected effects identified in the survey by establishing a working-level consultative body among the three countries," he added.