Trade between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) is growing
faster than expected and should hit 200 billion U.S. dollars before
the goal of 2012, ROK Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in Beijing
on Tuesday.
The two countries agreed in 2005 to raise bilateral trade to 200
billion U.S. dollars in 2012, said Han Duck-soo at a welcome
ceremony by the China Council for the Promotion of International
Trade (CCPIT).
He did not say when the volume would be achieved, but attributed
the possible earlier realization of the trade goal to the fast
development of economic and trade relations between the two
countries.
"The Republic of Korea and China, close in history and
contiguous in geography, have had a long history of mutual
exchanges," he said.
Bilateral economic and trade relations would continue to expand
as both the two countries insisted on mutual trust and benefit, he
said.
The statistics from the CCPIT showed that the Sino-ROK trade
volume in the first 10 months of this year reached 129.7 billion
U.S. dollars, 19 percent higher than that of the same period in
2006.
By the end of October, China had received a total of 37.9
billion U.S. dollars of actual ROK investment and hosted almost
46,000 ROK-funded companies. By the end of September, China had
invested 960 million U.S. dollars in the ROK.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2007)
