DPA
Seoul - South Korea said Monday that it wants to expand trade relations with the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) amid the worldwide economic downturn.
'I believe expanding our trade is critical to overcoming the global economic crisis,' President Lee Myung Bak said on the first day of a two-day summit with ASEAN on the South Korean island of Cheju.
Lee said he wanted to increase South Korea-ASEAN trade by more than 50 per cent from 90.2 billion dollars last year to 150 billion dollars by 2015.
South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, is now ASEAN's third-largest trading partner while ASEAN is South Korea's fifth-largest.
Lee also pledged Monday to double development aid to ASEAN countries to 400 million dollars in the next six years.
'We plan to provide tailor-made assistance that will fit the unique needs of each country and to help share our development experience with ASEAN countries,' the president said.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, which now holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship, said it was necessary to build an economic alliance with South Korea.
'The key challenge for us now is how to ensure that flows of investment and trade between Korea and ASEAN will not be affected by the global economic crisis,' he said.
South Korea and ASEAN plan Tuesday to sign a free trade agreement on investment that was drafted after more than four years of negotiations.
The summit, which was organized to commemorate South Korea and ASEAN's 20-year dialogue partnership, has been overshadowed by rising tensions with North Korea after the South's neighbour carried out a nuclear test last week along with a series of missile launches and appeared to be preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.
ASEAN and South Korea plan to issue a joint statement Tuesday condemning the nuclear test, North Korea's second after an initial test in 2006.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
'I believe expanding our trade is critical to overcoming the global economic crisis,' President Lee Myung Bak said on the first day of a two-day summit with ASEAN on the South Korean island of Cheju.
Lee said he wanted to increase South Korea-ASEAN trade by more than 50 per cent from 90.2 billion dollars last year to 150 billion dollars by 2015.
South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, is now ASEAN's third-largest trading partner while ASEAN is South Korea's fifth-largest.
Lee also pledged Monday to double development aid to ASEAN countries to 400 million dollars in the next six years.
'We plan to provide tailor-made assistance that will fit the unique needs of each country and to help share our development experience with ASEAN countries,' the president said.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, which now holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship, said it was necessary to build an economic alliance with South Korea.
'The key challenge for us now is how to ensure that flows of investment and trade between Korea and ASEAN will not be affected by the global economic crisis,' he said.
South Korea and ASEAN plan Tuesday to sign a free trade agreement on investment that was drafted after more than four years of negotiations.
The summit, which was organized to commemorate South Korea and ASEAN's 20-year dialogue partnership, has been overshadowed by rising tensions with North Korea after the South's neighbour carried out a nuclear test last week along with a series of missile launches and appeared to be preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.
ASEAN and South Korea plan to issue a joint statement Tuesday condemning the nuclear test, North Korea's second after an initial test in 2006.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
1 comment:
Korean should help cambodia with military assistance!
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