PRESS RELEASE
China Willing To Link Belt-and-Road with Economic Blueprints of Japan and South Korea
Dec. 6, 2016 (EIRNS)—Cao Wenlin, the Director General of the International Cooperation Center of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, attending a trilateral meeting in Tokyo with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, said that China was willing to work with Japan and the ROK on industrial capacity cooperation in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.
This occasion was the first forum on industrial capacity collaboration between the three nations. Jung Whan Woo, a research fellow with the R.O.K.’s Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, said East Asia countries should upgrade the quality and scale of their cooperation. Jung said it is of great importance for the three countries to find ways to work together in other markets, adding that China’s Belt and Road Initiative presents an opportunity for Japan and South Korea to pursue further development abroad.
Iwao Okamoto, president of the Japan-China Economic Association, called for establishing a mechanism for China-Japan-South Korean cooperation in other markets as soon as possible. Negotiations on a free trade agreement among the three countries, and the proposed pan-Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, should be accelerated, Okamoto said. China has proposed cooperation in other markets using the Belt and Road Initiative and South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative.
