SEOUL, KOREA - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy & Finance Hyun Oh-seok made remarks about the importance of the Chinese economy to Korea and deeper ties with it. He held a foreign economic ministers' meeting on May 15 in Sejong City and said, "Even though the Chinese economy seems to be entering a phase of slowdown, we need to sign a high-level free trade agreement with the country given its critical importance to our economy."

 

As for the recent export trend, he said, "The monthly export volume is in excess of US$40 billion this year to date, but there are still downward risk factors remaining." He enumerated such risks including geopolitical risks like the Ukraine crisis, as well as uncertainties in the world economy following the U.S. monetary authorities' quantitative easing tapering, emerging market slowdown, and worries about an economic recession in Japan after the consumption tax hike in early April.

 

He added, "In order to make exporters important pillars of our economy, we need to continue the regulatory reform process to help them raise their international competitiveness. In addition to the free trade agreement with China, we need to step up efforts to facilitate similar deals with other trading partners such as Vietnam."