BEIJING ― President Park Geun-hye on Friday called for expanding economic cooperation between Korea and China during a meeting with business leaders of the two countries.

“Building on the dazzling achievements in the past 20 years, South Korea and China should design a new vision for economic cooperation and make a leap toward qualitative growth beyond quantitative growth,” Park said in an address to a business forum hosted by business associations.

Park arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a four-day visit. During summit talks, she and Chinese President Xi Jinping denounced North Korea’s nuclear program as a serious threat to peace, and pledged to work closely together to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The sides also issued a wide-ranging joint communique where they vowed to significantly bolster political and security cooperation as well as further expand their already-flourishing economic ties, including making a stronger push for a free trade agreement.

During the address at the business forum, Park called for an early conclusion of free trade negotiations.

“Economic cooperation between the two countries has expanded, and if we are going to continuously move such achievements forward, we need a stronger institutional framework,” Park said. “I believe the Korea-China FTA will be the basis for that.”

China is Korea’s No. 1 trading partner and Korea is China’s third largest.

South Korea and China opened diplomatic relations in 1992. Bilateral trade volume rose 40-fold to $256 billion last year from $6.3 billion in 1992.

South Korea and China launched official negotiations in May last year to tear down barriers in trade between their largest economies. So far, the sides have held five rounds of negotiations, and a sixth round is scheduled for early July.

“There is a saying, ‘If you want to go fast, you should go alone, and if you want to go far, you should go together,’” Park said. “If the two countries hold hands together and work together, the two countries will have a brighter future and enjoy greater prosperity.”

Park said the two countries should establish a “stable trade structure that is not shaken by external factors. They should strengthen trade in items targeting each other’s domestic market, rather than relying on trade in parts and other items to be ultimately exported to the Western world, she said.

A record 71 South Korean business leaders are accompanying Park on the four-day Chinese trip. The number is much larger than the 36 in 2008 when then-President Lee Myung-bak visited China, and the 51 when Park visited the United States in May.

Earlier Friday, Park held a breakfast meeting with the economic delegation.

“As you are well aware, China’s economy is developing at a truly rapid speed,” she said. “China is already South Korea’s largest trading partner, and South Korea is China’s third-largest trading partner. We are in a situation where it is difficult to think of a South Korean economy without China, and of a Chinese economy without South Korea.”

China has so far served as a manufacturing base for South Korean companies, but such a trade pattern will soon reach its limit, Park said, stressing that South Korea should target the expanding middle class in the world’s most populous country.

The number of middle-class people in China is expected to quadruple to 400 million by 2020, she said.

Park also said South Korean firms should carry out more corporate social responsibility projects in China, such as anti-desertification and education programs, explaining that such projects will be conducive to their business activity.

Later in the day, Xi hosted a lunch for Park at the Diaoyutai state guest house and first lady Peng Liyuan also attended the meeting.

On Thursday Xi had a feast in her honor at a reception following their summit talks.

Park’s spokesperson Kim Haing said it is “nearly unprecedented” for a Chinese leader to host such a special lunch in addition to a state dinner reception, and the move underscores Xi’s “friendship and trust” toward Park.

On Saturday, she is scheduled to fly to the ancient western city of Xian.

By Han Suk-hee and news reports  
(why37@heraldcorp.com)