Korean and Chinese businesspersons regard their counterpart countries as the most important partner in Asia, rather than rival, according to a survey.
KOTRA, a state-run agency promoting trade and investment, Tuesday revealed this in the survey on mutual awareness and assessment by Korean and Chinese businesses this year. The outcome is the result of a survey for 320 Korean businesses in China and 502 Chinese businesses in Korea on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their normalization of formal diplomatic relations.
As many as 41 percent of Chinese businesses surveyed replied that they regard Korea as the most important nation in Asia, followed by Japan with 30.9 percent, India with 15.3 percent and ASEAN nations with11.2 percent. On the other hand, as many as 82.2 percent of the Korean businesses doing business in China cites China as the most important nation, followed by ASEAN with 8.8 percent and India with 6.6 percent.
Chinese businesses chose the information technology (IT) converging industry as the top priority for bilateral cooperation, while more than half of Korean businesses in China questioned replied that they have chosen “green” industry and services industry. Chinese want Korea’s advanced IT technology, while Korean businesses have been seeking expansion into services for making inroads into the Chinese consumer market.
About 56 percent of Korean firms operating in China replied that “Korea and China are partners for cooperation,” higher than the 42.2 percent who replied that they would be competitors in the future. As much as 69.5 percent of Chinese firms doing business in Korea believe that the two countries are partners rather than competitors (29.7 percent).
More than 60 percent of Korean and Chinese businesses believe that the bilateral free trade agreement under negotiation is desirable. The largest portion of businesses in each country expressed their hope that the pact should be concluded in one year or two.
“It will be ‘coopetition (cooperation+competition), an era over the next two decades with both cooperation and competition existing in the bilateral relations,” said Oh Young-ho, president of KOTRA. “It is high time for the two countries to set up a new frame on exchange cooperation, such as exploring cooperation fields among Korea’s new growth industries and China’s seven new strategic industries. Both sides also should jointly carry out research and development (R&D) in components and new materials.”