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100 business leaders to visit Vladivostok forum next month
By Kang Seung-woo
The government seeks to take 100 leading businesspeople to Russia to enhance bilateral economic cooperation.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Friday, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has sent letters to major companies asking whether they will join Trade Minister Paik Un-gyu's visit to the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled for Sept. 6 and 7 in Vladivostok.
The annual forum is a venue to discuss regional cooperation in developing Russia's resource-rich Far East. Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended it since its inception in 2015.
Putin invited President Moon Jae-in to the forum during their bilateral summit on the sidelines of the G20 in Germany last month. Cheong Wa Dae has yet to confirm Moon's attendance.
The two leaders agreed to intensify their cooperation in the development of the Russian Far East, as well as joint development of a new Arctic shipping line and the expansion of future growth engines in areas including energy, gas and post-nuclear energy last month.
The highlight of the EEF will be the Korea-Russia Business Dialogue on the second day at the Far Eastern Federal University, which Paik and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev, along with 100 Korean delegates and their 250 Russian counterparts, will attend.
In that respect, the nation's four major conglomerates _ Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and LG _ and other firms that run businesses there or want to do so are expected to participate in the forum. Applications will be accepted until this week.
However, the detailed schedule has yet to be unveiled.
"High-profile government officials of the two nations will attend the Korea-Russia Business Dialogue and their companies are likely to hold talks for cooperation," an official of the business industry said.
A government official also said previous administrations typically promoted multiple memoranda of understanding with much fanfare, with many of them falling through, so the Moon government is exploring ways to achieve tangible results with Russian partners.
Meanwhile, the government is set to enhance economic cooperation with Northeast Asian countries, taking advantage of the EEF. In this regard, a presidential committee focusing on the tasks will be set up later this month, with Rep. Song Young-gil taking the helm.
The committee will review projects such as the idea of a northeast Asian super-grid that uses wind farms in Mongolia to power Korea, Japan, China and Russia and importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Sakhalin, Russia.
The Moon administration strives to take part in the Northeast Asia super-grid project in partnership with Japan's SoftBank group.
The project is to build a power grid that links electricity supply networks of five neighboring countries to share energy. They are Korea, Japan, China, Russia and Mongolia.
Rep. Song is also in charge of the Korean team to join the project.
