BUSAN, Dec 11 – South Korean President Park Geun-hye will open a crucial summit with Southeast Asian countries on Thursday with a speech for hundreds of business leaders from the region, Park’s office said.
Park is expected to call for strengthening ties with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has emerged as one of the key trade partners of South Korea in recent decades.
ASEAN — which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam — represents 3.2 percent of the global gross domestic product and nearly 7 percent of global trade.
ASEAN is South Korea’s No. 2 investment destination and second-largest trade partner, with two-way trade amounting to $135 billion last year, up 16 times from 1989, according to South Korean data.
Also Thursday, Park is set to hold back-to-back meetings with leaders of six Asian countries, including Indonesia and Singapore.
Park also plans to host a welcoming banquet later in the day for the Asian leaders who came to South Korea’s second-largest city of Busan.
The two-day summit is designed to boost the strategic partnership with ASEAN on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue between the two sides.
On Wednesday, South Korea and Vietnam announced the effective conclusion of a free trade deal meant to boost bilateral trade by removing barriers, but excluded rice from the agreement.
The deal is the latest in a series of free trade agreements that South Korea has clinched in recent years as part of its efforts to boost growth in the country’s export-driven economy.
