China, S. Korea vow to expand innovation cooperation

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday highlighted innovation cooperation as an important achievement resulting from his visit to South Korea.

When meeting South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, Li said he held friendly and in-depth talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye during the visit.

The two countries reached a host of important consensuses, including building up synergies between their own development strategies, enhancing cooperation in innovation and entrepreneurship, and exploring production capacity cooperation in third-party markets, he said.

The two sides also agreed to seize the opportunity of the signing of a China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to develop new models for trade cooperation and boost bilateral economic and trade collaboration, he added.

The premier called on China and South Korea to make concerted efforts to turn these consensuses into fruition, which he said would further advance bilateral relations on the existing sound basis.

The two countries' decision to enhance synergies between their strategies for innovation cooperation is an important achievement of his visit, said Li.

He said China and South Korea would better achieve mutual benefit and win-win results by building platforms for innovation cooperation, jointly establishing an innovation park in China's southwestern city of Chengdu, and promoting innovation cooperation between large and small and medium-sized enterprises of the two countries.

The cooperation would also accelerate industrial upgrading in China, especially the central and western part of the country, and meet diversified consumer demand, while creating favorable conditions for jointly exploring third-party markets and playing an exemplary role, noted the premier.

To this end, Li said, China is willing to set up a ministerial-level coordination mechanism with South Korea on the establishment of a mutual fund to bolster innovation cooperation between their enterprises.

For his part, Hwang said South Korea and China have made great strides in various fields of cooperation, adding that his country is willing to take Li's visit as an opportunity to expedite the implementation of consensuses reached between the two sides.

South Korea also stands ready to strengthen strategic dialogue, expand innovation cooperation, and actively explore the joint development of third-party markets, he said, while calling on the two sides to promote youth exchanges and enrich bilateral relations, so as to push forward their strategic cooperative partnership.

Li arrived in Seoul on Saturday for a three-day trip, which also included a trilateral summit with Japanese and South Korean leaders on Sunday. Endi