Kim Beom-su, the founder of the company behind South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, is now the richest person in the country, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Friday.
Kim has seen his fortune reach $13.4 billion this year, surpassing Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong, whose net worth was estimated at $12.1 billion.
Kim’s assets grew by $6 billion in 2021 alone as Kakao shares soared 91 percent, boosted by the stock market debuts or debut plans of its several subsidiaries.
Bloomberg said that Kim’s case is an example of how self-made technology entrepreneurs are climbing the superrich list in South Korea, overtaking members of families that control the country’s decades-old conglomerates.
Kim, 55, born as the third of five children in a poor family, grew up in a small one-bedroom apartment. His parents reportedly earned their living mainly through manual labor jobs and he was the only child who made his way into a university.
After working five years at Samsung SDS, an IT services affiliate of Samsung Electronics, Kim opened a PC cafe and later founded an online game platform operator, Hangame Communications, which was eventually merged with search engine Naver to become the country’s dominant web portal, NHN.
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In 2010, Kim and his startup firm launched KakaoTalk, which soon became the country’s dominant messaging app.
Over the past decade, Kakao has grown fast. As of Friday, Kakao and its two listed affiliates marked an aggregate market cap of 73 trillion won.
Kim, who now serves as the board chairman at Kakao, holds around 24 percent of Kakao’s shares, including the ones he owns through K Cube Holdings, Kim’s fully owned investment firm, according to a regulatory filing in May.
In February, he pledged to donate more than half of his assets. In the following month, he joined the Giving Pledge, a global campaign created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett for the world‘s wealthiest individuals to give back the majority of their wealth.
New regulations for military personnel to take effect Sunday
BEIJING – A new law on protecting military personnels status, rights, and interests will come into effect on Sunday, which marks Chinas Army Day.
The law was adopted on June 10 and stipulates the benefits enjoyed by military personnel regarding salaries, housing, healthcare services, insurance, vacations, education, and others.
It also laid down how families of martyrs should receive preferential treatment for matters including employment and their children’s education.
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In addition, starting from Sunday, military personnel left with disabilities will be given an average of a 10-percent increase in their pensions under the government’s new program.
Starting from August, a new judicial interpretation will also take effect, banning the misuse of facial recognition at business or public premises.
According to the new document, misusing the technology of facial recognition, including recognizing or analyzing facial data, could constitute an infringement of personality rights or interests.
Other new regulations coming into force next month will impose stricter management on fire safety issues and the pork processing industry.
Protesters in downtown Kuala Lumpur demand PM Muhyiddins resignation
KUALA LUMPUR – Several hundred protesters marched peacefully in Kuala Lumpurs city centre on Saturday (July 31) to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Roads around Merdeka Square, where National Day parades were often held, were sealed off as protesters dressed in black took to the streets. The demonstration was organised by a coalition of youth and civil society groups, called the Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (People’s Solidarity Secretariat).
Some brought mock corpses wrapped in white cloth to symbolise the high number of daily Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia, in a criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
The coalition is also calling for a full parliamentary sitting and automatic bank loan moratoriums to ease hardship fuelled by the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases hit a new record high on Saturday, the last day of the month, at 17,786. This was more than doubled the 6,988 cases notched on July 1.
Traffic police and plainclothes police were seen standing by at the scene, The Star reported. Some marshals donning white safety hats and medics wearing red safety hats were also present.
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City police chief Azmi Abu Kassim warned that those who violated Covid-19 health protocols would face police action.
According to The Star, the Commissioner, Datuk Azmi, said the police have not received any application or notice from the organising committee of the proposed gathering.
District police said on Saturday that they would call up the organisers and those who took part in the rally.
“Under the Movement Control Order, no public assemblies are allowed including social gatherings, and sports activities,” Mohamad Zainal Abdullah, police chief for Dang Wangi district, told a news conference.
He said police estimated about 450 people attended the rally. The organisers claimed 2,000 people participated.
Youth activist Sarah Irdina, 20, said she was detained for nearly 11 hours, two days ago, over her Twitter posts about the planned protest.
“This failed government’s inhumane treatment of those that fight for a better Malaysia is what keeps hurting us Malaysians, when their job is supposedly to protect us. This is why we #lawan (fight),” she wrote on Twitter on Friday (July 30).
The protest comes as PM Muhyiddin faces a constitutional crisis amid pressure to step down after clashing with the King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah.
The palace on Thursday insisted that the King did not endorse the government’s unilateral move to withdraw the ordinances under the state of emergency which he proclaimed in January. The state of emergency is due to expire on Sunday.
There had been calls, even from Mr Muhyiddin’s own allies in Umno party, for him to quit.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after two hours, police said.
ECQ will give authorities time to prepare for a surge – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) does not expect the strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Metro Manila where the number of active cases daily could rise to 18,000 and up to 30,000 by September, but it will give time for authorities to prepare to deal with a possible surge.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Saturday said the figures were estimates made by experts from the Autumn Group and a team that employed the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler For Early Detection of Diseases, or FASSSTER system.
“What we’re saying is these lockdowns will help us prepare the system, but it is not going to control the spread. We still need to prepare the system, do what we have to do to prevent the further spread of this Delta variant,” she said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing.
“Please take note that these are initial projections and DOH, with our experts, have provided comments and recommendations to further improve on this,” she later told reporters.
Metro Manila will come under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest government lockdown category, from Aug. 6 to Aug. 20 as part of efforts to deal with the threat posed by the highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Lockdown scenarios
Vergeire said the two groups provided forecasts for different lockdown scenarios, including four weeks of total lockdown.
“In these scenarios, there was an increase in the number of cases from 18,000 to 30,000 plus cases. This is if we are under ECQ,” she said.
The FASSSTER team is composed of experts in disease modeling, health informatics, social computing and health systems development, according to the DOH.
Vergeire did not specify the “preparations” needed to deal with the expected rise in cases in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Earlier this week, Dr. Alethea de Guzman, acting director of the Epidemiology Bureau of the DOH, advised local governments to strengthen their prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate strategies and to expand their health-care systems to handle the possible rise in the number of cases due to the more contagious variant.
The Delta variant is one of the factors that the DOH is now considering with regard to the increase in coronavirus infections, though it cannot be certain as not all samples are subjected to genome sequencing to identify the variant responsible, Vergeire said.
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She reminded the public to be doubly careful because Delta was highly transmissible, given that those who were infected carry a higher viral load that could be spread even during brief encounters.
“We could have a fleeting moment [with an infected person] and we could be infected,” Vergeire said.
Business slowdown
The chances of vaccinated persons infecting others is not lessened because of the high viral load from those infected, she added.
But Vergeire said there was no sufficient evidence yet to say that the variant causes more severe infection.
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Under ECQ, only essential businesses would be allowed to fully operate and the movement of the general population would be restricted.
Business groups and the country’s economic managers are expecting another economic slowdown resulting from the two-week ECQ in NCR, the country’s industrial and financial hub.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua earlier said that each week of ECQ in Metro Manila would cost the economy P105 billion in foregone output.
He added that the National Economic and Development Authority, which he heads, also estimated that a week of ECQ would push 177,000 more Filipinos into poverty, and 444,000 would temporarily lose their jobs.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado on Friday said the government was looking for funds to compensate those who would lose their jobs during the ECQ.
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The Aug. 6 to Aug. 20 lockdown would be the third time the national capital would be under ECQ. The first was in mid-March to mid-May last year, which devastated the economy. The second was in late March to mid-April this year due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Based on data from the DOH, there were 12,108 active cases in NCR on July 30. There were 63,474 active cases in the national capital on March 29 at the start of the second ECQ.
Active cases at 60K
On Saturday, the DOH reported 60,887 active cases nationwide.
It said that it recorded 8,147 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 1,588,965. It was the second straight day that new cases numbered more than 8,000.
The recovery of 9,117 patients brought the total number of survivors to 1,500,189. The death toll rose by 167 to 27,889, the DOH said.
Of the 60,887 active cases, it said 93.8 percent were mild, 1.3 percent asymptomatic, 1.3 percent critical, 2.1 percent severe and 1.52 percent moderate.
The DOH also reported that of the 54,857 people screened for the virus on Thursday, 8,063 individuals tested positive, for a positivity rate of 14.7 percent.
The World Health Organization says that a positivity rate of less than 5 percent indicates that virus spread is under control.
At the height of the surge fueled by the Alpha and Beta variants of the virus last April, the country’s positivity rate reached 24 percent. The Delta variant is said to be up to 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant.
HCM City, southern region lockdown extended by two weeks amid soaring COVID-19 cases
HÀ NỘI — HCM City along with 18 southern provinces and cities will continue to enforce lockdown measures in line with the Government’s Directive 16 for two more weeks, per a dispatch issued by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Saturday.
The original lockdown order for the entire southern region with a population of about 35 million people, effective since July 19, was set to expire on August 1 but the fourth-wave COVID-19 outbreak has shown no signs of letting up.
The Prime Minister wants all localities under Directive 16 – which includes measures like the closure of all non-essential businesses, leaving home only for essential goods and services, and suspension of public transport – to strictly abide by the rules and stand ready to roll out more stringent measures if necessary.
Most of southern localities, including HCM City, Bình Dương, and Đồng Nai asked people not to go outside at night.
The order goes on to state that local authorities must step up their information campaign and carry out immediately necessary measures to ensure the livelihood and healthcare of residents to ensure they can remain where they are.
The order came as thousands of people – mostly workers from the central region and other southern localities – have left or were making plans to leave HCM City on their personal vehicles for their hometown due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak, business closures, the imposition of lockdown, and the adverse impacts it was having on their livelihoods.
The local governments where lockdown is in effect have been told they must not let residents leave their places of residence for another locality after July 31 until the end of lockdown (unless authorised).
“Leaders of provinces and cities are responsible to the Prime Minister if they let people travel out of their localities on their own. For people who want to leave one province for another, all relevant localities’ authorities must organise the pick-up and drop-off sites to ensure the safety of the community, as well as arrange testing, transportation by car (trucks can be used to carry people’s motorbikes if people travel by motorbike), handover protocols, quarantine facilities and medical supervision in accordance with regulations, in order to not let the disease spread,” the dispatch reads.
The Ministry of Public Security has been tasked with consulting local authorities with regard to transportation and routes.
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The dispatch notes that if the social distancing measures are effective, and if the situation is under control, provincial and municipal authorities could consider lifting restrictions for certain areas under their jurisdiction. For inter-provincial areas, however, restriction removal would need the agreement of all concerned localities and the plan would have to be submitted to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control before any decision was made.
All local governments across the country need to immediately provide food and medical attention for all workers suffering from income loss or those without savings. Support for their people who are working or living in HCM City or elsewhere with complicated COVID-19 situations must be provided.
The Prime Minister urged a faster rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and emphasised that no dose should go to waste. He also said that administrators of the vaccination programme must ensure priority groups receive theirs first and that there are not incidents of abuses of power to administer vaccines to ineligible persons.
The Government leader also called for the participation of medical workers in the private sector in the local COVID-19 fight and said they should stand ready to reinforce localities with high case numbers in line with the health ministry’s direction.
The Ministry of Public Security will need to lead efforts to handle fake news that undermine COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.
The Ministry of Health has also been told to shorten administrative procedures related to production and the supply of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, and review and propose additional appropriate support policies for medical staff and frontline forces. — VNS
Japan’s gold medalists bring attention, excitement to skateboarding
With two Japanese athletes winning gold medals in skateboarding’s Olympic debut, the sport is experiencing a boom in popularity.
Skateboarding schools are being inundated with inquires about trial lessons and classes, and board sales are increasing. However, there is the issue that skateboarding is still banned at many parks.
“First, let’s just try standing on [the board],” said an instructor, who was teaching 27 elementary-school-aged students.
Each student then slowly rode around a skateboarding facility located in Koto Ward, Tokyo.
The children, who wore helmets and other protective equipment, were participating in a trial lesson held once a week by H.L.N.A, which operates the facility.
The facility started receiving many applications after Yuto Horigome, 22, won gold in men’s street skateboarding. The number of students enrolled in the school has increased by more than 100.
“Many children want to [skateboard] because it’s cool,” said instructor Ryohei Kobayashi, 26.
Toya Nakaya, 9, a third-grader from Kawasaki who was learning how to skateboard, said: “I saw a skateboard floating and spinning in mid-air on TV and thought it was amazing, so I begged my mom [to let me take classes]. It was my first time skateboarding, but it felt really good when I was able to glide forward.”
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■ Sales doubled
Skateboard sales have doubled at the Harajuku Meiji-dori branch of Murasaki Sports in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Young people have been coming in one after another, saying they want to start skateboarding or pick it up again.
The store sells a wide variety of skateboarding equipment, including about 500 skateboards in various colors. When The Yomiuri Shimbun visited the store on Wednesday, parents with children, as well as young people, were browsing the store. As a result of the sudden boom, much of the store’s inventory is in short supply.
Amid the pandemic, skateboarding is also gaining popularity because it is “a sport that can be enjoyed alone.”
“I hope more people will become interested in skateboarding thanks to the gold medalists,” said store manager Takeo Fujiwara, 39. “I hope it will become a more established [sport].”
■ Still widely banned
Skateboarding originated as a street sport overseas. In Japan, skating is banned in many parks as it can damage handrails and stairs, as well as create a lot of noise. There is also a concern regarding safety as some skaters ride down busy streets.
Skateboarding is often thought of as a public nuisance, according to the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Japan Skate Park Association, which is working to establish more skate parks across Japan. As of the end of May, there are 418 skate parks nationwide.
“There are so few in Japan, you can’t even compare it to other countries,” said Satoru Kawasaki, 51, the representative director of the association.
As a result of the situation, the association and those involved are concerned that more skaters will end up practicing on the streets or in parks, where skateboarding is prohibited. It is highly possible that the current number of skate parks will not be enough to accommodate the increasing number of skateboarders, as some have been closed because of the pandemic.
Tokyo’s Komazawa Olympic Park has a skate park, but it is currently closed because of the pandemic.
“Watching [skateboarding] at the Olympics really pushed me to want to get better,” said a second-year junior high school student who was practicing at Komazawa park. “I know skateboarding in [the park] is banned, but I don’t have anywhere else I can practice. I once got in trouble by a security guard [when I was skating here].”
Momiji Nishiya, 13, who won the gold medal in women’s street skateboarding, usually practices at Sports Park Matsubara in Matsubara, Osaka Prefecture. The facility was set up by the local city government to give children a place to safely skateboard.
“Since Japan earned gold medals, now is the perfect time to change the image people have about skateboarding,” said Kawasaki. “I hope more skate parks will be established, such as by redesigning a section of a park, so children can skateboard as much as they want.”
Asean hopes to finalise appointment of special envoy to Myanmar next week
BANGKOK, July 31 (Bernama): The appointment of a special envoy to Myanmar is expected to be concluded during the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting next week.
Director-general of Department of Asean Affairs at Thailand’s Foreign Ministry Usana Berananda said three nominees for the role have been indentified and Brunei, the current ASEAN chair, has conveyed all three names to Myanmar.
“We understand Myanmar has positively responded to the nominations. We hope that the appointment can be finalised during ASEAN Ministerial Meeting/Post Ministerial Conferences next week.
The special envoy will serve as the mediator in the dialogue process to seek a peaceful solution for the nation in turmoil since the Feb 1 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
She said veteran Thai diplomat and former deputy foreign minister, Virasakdi Futrakul is among the nominees.
Earlier, media had reported the two other candidates were former Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Malaysia’s Tan Sri Razali Ismail who previously served as a United Nations special envoy to Myanmar.
“Once the special envoy is appointed, the mandate will be based on the five-point consensus agreed by Asean leaders during the Special Meeting in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in April,” she said at a virtual press conference on Friday.
The five-point consensus are – immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, hold constructive dialogue among all parties concerned, appointment of an Asean special envoy as mediator, provide humanitarian assistance and the special envoy and delegation shall visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.
A day after attending the meeting, Myanmar’s junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said he would consider the five points when the situation in Myanmar is stable.
Three months after the Asean leaders agreed on the five-point consensus, little has materialised while the situation in Myanmar had deteriorated drastically due to the civil unrest since where more than 900 people have been reported killed. To add to the woes, the country is now facing a surge in Covid-19 cases and fatalities.
Usana said the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) and ASEAN Secretariat have prepared the ground work to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar.
“Thailand will contribute medical supply through AHA Centre to Myanmar. We are working closely with Myanmar and ASEAN Chair, Brunei,” she said.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward warned that the virus is spreading through the population very fast indeed and by some estimates half of Myanmar’s 54 million population could be infected with Covid-19 in the next two weeks.
Therefore, she called for the United Nations monitors to ensure an effective delivery of vaccines.
“The coup has resulted in a near total collapse of the healthcare system, with health care workers being attacked and arrested,” she told an informal Security Council discussion on Myanmar, quoted by Reuters. – Bernama
Japan decides to expand state of emergency to 4 more prefectures as infections surge again
The government decided to expand the state of emergency to the four prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Osaka at its COVID-19 task force meeting on Friday, as infections have surged in these areas.
Earlier on the same day, the government’s subcommittee on COVID-19 basic measures approved the plan to declare a new state of emergency for the four prefectures from Aug. 2 to 31.
The decision will increase the number of prefectures under the state of emergency to six, including Tokyo and Okinawa Prefecture, which are already subject to the measure.
During the subcommittee meeting on Friday, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura expressed a sense of crisis about the current infection situation, saying, “We are now entering a new and frightening phase that is different from before.”
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Currently, the government has applied emergency-level priority measures to the three prefectures neighboring Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture. These prefectures saw the burden on their medical institutions increase as their number of new infection cases reached Stage 4 — the most serious level, and regarded as a benchmark for declaring a state of emergency. The government took this factor into consideration in adding them to the state of emergency list.
The state of emergency for Tokyo and Okinawa Prefecture was initially scheduled to end on Aug. 22, but it is now expected to be extended to Aug. 31. Restaurants serving alcoholic beverages will continue to be requested to close temporarily in areas subject to the state of emergency.
Additionally, the government plans to apply priority measures to five prefectures — Hokkaido, Kyoto, Hyogo, Ishikawa and Fukuoka — where infections have spread rapidly, from Aug. 2 to 31. In the priority-measure areas, the government will ask for the suspension of the serving of alcohol in principle. Currently, eating establishments that have taken certain measures against the virus are allowed to serve alcoholic beverages on an exceptional basis at the discretion of their prefectural governor. However, the government’s revised basic policy has made the conditions more stringent by allowing alcohol to be served only when infections are trending down.
Some members of the government initially proposed that the state of emergency end on Aug. 22. However, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of COVID-19 measures, said at the subcommittee meeting, “We want to put [the state of emergency] in effect through Aug. 31, so that we can assess the effects of vaccinations on the working-age population, which have made progress now.”
The government projects that 40% to 50% of the nation’s population will have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of August. At present, the number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients in their 40s and 50s has been on the rise. If inoculations progress among people of this age group in August, the infection situation could improve.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga plans to hold a press conference Friday night to seek public understanding of the government’s decision.
Temasek, DBS launch $677m debt financing platform for tech firms in Asia
SINGAPORE – State investor Temasek and DBS Bank will jointly launch a US$500 million (S$677 million) growth-stage debt financing platform.
Called EvolutionX Debt Capital, the platform will provide non-dilutive financing to growth-stage technology-enabled companies across Asia, with a focus on China, India and South-east Asia.
Companies at the growth stage tend to seek more capital as they look into expanding their market reach and diversifying their businesses.
EvolutionX will be headquartered in Singapore.
It will invest in opportunities arising from an increasingly digital economy – across sectors such as financial services, consumer, healthcare, education and industrial development – to accelerate growth and build the next generation of technology leaders, the two Singapore institutions said in a joint statement on Friday (July 30).
The platform combines Temasek’s investment expertise and DBS’ global banking networks to capitalise on the fast-growing technology ecosystem in Asia, they added.
It will be led by joint interim chief executive officers – Mr Amit Sinha, head of telecoms, media and technology at DBS’s institutional banking group; and Temasek’s investment (innovation) director Aftab Mathur.
A full-time chief executive will be appointed in the next few months.
DBS’ group head of institutional banking Tan Su Shan said the investment is an opportunity for the bank to play a role in nurturing and financing the growth of Asia’s future unicorns, while forging partnerships and ecosystem opportunities with high-growth technology-enabled companies.
“Growth debt is fast emerging as an alternative source of financing for high-growth technology companies that traditionally only raised equity as a source of capital,” she said.
“Apart from helping founder entrepreneurs avoid dilution of share equity in the company’s initial stages of development, growth debt also serves as a complementary tool to tide these companies, which are often cash strapped, through unexpected market and economic headwinds by extending their cash runway.”
Temasek’s chief investment strategist Rohit Sipahimalani said the platform will be “a meaningful alternative for technology-focused growth companies in Asia that may face debt funding needs between the venture debt and late-stage debt financing phases”.
“With EvolutionX, we can help provide companies and entrepreneurs the support they need as they continue to scale and expand,” he added.
Temasek also has a joint venture with United Overseas Bank providing debt financing to start-ups.
New highs seen for China’s trade with Northeast Asia
Chinas foreign trade with Russia and the Republic of Korea is expected to hit new highs this year, driven by enhanced economic integration in Northeast Asia and their complementary goods trade structure, senior government officials said on Friday.
Many opportunities also come from the deepened integration of the Belt and Road Initiative, which was initiated by China, with the economic development blueprints of other countries in Northeast Asia, said Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of commerce.
In the first half of this year, China’s trade growth with five countries in Northeast Asia surged by 26 percent year-on-year to $417.9 billion, while its export and import volumes with Russia and the ROK soared 28.2 percent and 28.5 percent on a yearly basis to $63.08 billion and $168.88 billion, respectively, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed.
Northeast Asia consists of China, Russia, Mongolia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan. It has a market with a population of more than 1.7 billion and over 20 percent of the world’s GDP. The region boasts favorable transport conditions, and covers a vast area with rich human, mining and marine resources.
Addressing a news conference in Beijing, the official said that with the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, its future implementation will further push the level of liberalization and facilitation of intraregional trade and investment between economies in Northeast Asia.
The total trade volume between China and other Northeast Asian economies amounted to $717.7 billion in 2020, accounting for nearly one-sixth of China’s total foreign trade. China is the largest trading partner of these economies, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
As of the end of June, the cumulative two-way investment between China and Northeast Asian countries exceeded $250 billion. China and countries in the region have achieved fruitful results in investment cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and agriculture, with continuous improvement of service level and structure optimization.
Eager to further enrich business ties in the next stage, China will hold the 13th China-Northeast Asia Expo in Changchun, the capital of Northeast China’s Jilin province, from Aug 27 to 31. The event will serve as a platform for countries in Northeast Asia to build consensus and diversify cooperation, said Li Wei, Jilin’s vice-governor.
The expo will “have important implications for the countries in the region to introduce their own policies and practices, exchange information and inform the direction of future cooperation, especially moves in a post-pandemic world,” said Zhang Shenfeng, vice-chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
In addition to enhancing the cooperation among China, Japan and the ROK, Liaoning province in Northeast China will open a new northeast land and sea channel to Mongolia and Russia, said Li Jirui, deputy director-general of the province’s transportation department.
“The future implementation of the RCEP agreement will offer economies in Northeast Asia more weight in the regional economic landscape and facilitate a higher standard of trade and investment to fuel common growth,” he said.
After the signing of the RCEP deal last year, the Dalian area of China (Liaoning) Pilot Free Trade Zone initiated the transport channel in February.
“It now takes 30 days for a car made in Japan to be shipped to Dalian Port by sea and transported to Kazakhstan by rail via the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region,” he said, adding it used to take more than 80 days via the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and Russia in the past.
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