On July 29, the 2020 Chongqing-South Korea Online Investment Promotion Meeting was held via video link in the conference room of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce (CMCC).

Over 100 leaders and corporate guests attended the meeting, including Qu Qian, Vice Mayor of Chongqing, Chang Sang-Hyun, Vice President of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Park Jun-Sik, General Director of Global Strategic Planning of SK Hynix, and Lee Hyuk-Joon, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Hyundai Motor in China.

272 South Korean Companies settle in Chongqing

According to the data from CMCC, the imports and exports between Chongqing and South Korea in 2019 totaled 50.65 billion yuan, up 3.8%. South Korea's foreign trade turnover with Chongqing ranked second among countries.

In the first half of 2020, the total export-import volume between Chongqing and South Korea was 24.29 billion yuan, up 1.4%, including 16.01 billion yuan of import volume, up 18.33%.

From January to December 2019, 19 new South Korean-invested enterprises were established. As of June 2020, a total of 272 South Korean-funded enterprises had been established in Chongqing. They do businesses mainly involving in manufacturing, wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering, and leasing and business service.

Intelligent industry leads the way in South Korea-Chongqing trade and investment

After ten years of rapid development, the trade and investment between South Korea and Chongqing increased by 12.5 times to 6.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 compared to 2010.

Zhang Shangxuan, Vice President of KOTRA, said that the total investment of South Korean enterprises in Chongqing was about 4 billion U.S. dollars. In the next decade, the core intelligent industry of Industry 4.0 will find it lead in trade and investment and development between South Korea and Chongqing.

Lee Hyung-Jik, Deputy Director of Chongqing Office of KOTRA, said that South Korean-invested enterprises would participate more widely in Smart China Expo and ramp up their investment in Chongqing in intelligent and financial sectors this year.

Zhang Zhikui, Director of CMCC, said that Chongqing would deepen the economic and trade exchanges and practical cooperation with South Korea in trade and investment, industrial cooperation and intelligent fields, and hoped that South Korean-invested enterprises would further ratchet up investment in Chongqing and deepen strategic cooperation, thus achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.