KITA held the 28th East Asia Business Council
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On May 13th, President Duck-soo Han of KITA held the 28th East-Asia Business Council (EABC) consisted of economic organizations from 13 countries in Hainan, China.
The East Asia Business Council (EABC) is a private consultative group which was inaugurated as a result of the recommendations from the East Asia Study Group conducted by the ASEAN+3 governments on October, 2003 in Bali, Indonesia. EABC makes recommendations to governments regarding opinions from private sector in order to expand economic cooperation and promote economic development. The term of EABC Chairman is one year and the Republic of Korea is the Chair of EABC for 2014 and the Managing Director Moo-han Kim of KITA which is a representative of Korea is holding the position of the Chairman.
During this year’s the 28th Annual Meeting, there was discussion on various cooperation measures under the theme of “promoting trade among SMEs in East Asia”. Mostly discourses were concerning facilitating B2B website (www.eabex.org) whose purpose is to introduce and recommend businesses among corporations, formation of consultative council to resolve trade disputes among corporations in East Asia region, and establishment of EABC SME center to expand supports in trade promotion among SMEs in East Asia region.
Moreover, there is a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) whose target is to enact regional free trades in 16 countries like ASEAN, Korea, China and Japan, Australia, India and New Zealand. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Negotiation Subcommittee was set up to actively reflect views of East Asian Entrepreneurs on negotiations about Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. At the subcommittee meeting, business representatives both from EABC members and ASEAN+6 including Australia, India and New Zealand came together and had active discussion on measures to maximize benefits of RCEP agreement.
EABC is planning to deliver its recommendations that contain results of this discussion to ASEAN +3 Finance Ministers Meeting to be held on August in Nay Pyi Taw of Myanmar and after final consultation to ASEAN+3 Submit on December.
Managing Director Moo-han Kim of KITA said “As only multiparty private consultative group in ASEAN+3 countries, EABC has been making contributions to strengthen economic cooperation in East Asia region through various activities every year. When economies in ASEAN will be integrated by 2015, the regional importance will grow even bigger. Thus, KITA is making efforts to expand trade and invests with East Asia countries through a channel of EBAC. ”
