Crutches can't slow SK Chair Chey’s zeal for 2030 Expo in Busan

The largest business chambers of South Korea and Japan have agreed to cooperate on Korea’s bid to host World Expo 2030 in Busan and to deepen their economic partnership. Their commitments were made during their first joint chair-level meeting in six years amid thawing relations between the two neighboring countries. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on Friday announced what is dubbed the Busan Declaration that seeks to enhance across-the-board collaboration between the two countries. “The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry will actively participate in the Osaka-Kansai Expo in 2025, and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry will actively cooperate on (Korea’s) successful bid for the World Expo in Busan in 2030,” the joint statement read. The two chambers met on Friday for an annual chair-level meeting in Busan, Korea’s second-largest city and biggest port. It marked their first such meeting since Seoul and Tokyo nearly severed diplomatic channels in 2018 due to trade rows stemming from disputes over Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century. The KCCI and the JCCI held joint annual meetings from 2001 to 2017.The countries' bilateral relations have improved recently after their state leaders, Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, visited each other’s country for summits this year. Their moves restored the special diplomatic channel between the two nations’ leaders — dubbed shuttle diplomacy — for the first time in 12 years.The two chambers had already held a working-level meeting in April, signaling the resumption of the chair-level meeting. With their chair-level meeting restored, the KCCI and JCCI plan to hold next year’s joint meeting in Osaka, Japan. MORE COOPERATION AHEAD “I am grateful for the resumption of the KCCI-JCCI chair meeting,” said KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won at Friday's meeting. “Korea-Japan relations are at a turning point — and this is the critical moment for our cooperation.”JCCI Chairman Ken Kobayashi called on Korean and Japanese businesses to build a “future-oriented partnership” at a time when the two neighbors face the same social issues such as low fertility rates, aged societies and carbon-neutral goals. “I sincerely wish that our cooperation on the 2025 Osaka Expo and Korea’s bid for Busan Expo in 2030 revitalizes national exchanges and deepens our mutual understanding,” said Kobayashi. “Our bid for the expo in Busan is part of efforts to address global challenges,” Chey added. The KCCI chairperson, who is also SK Group's chairman, attended the chamber meeting wearing a cast and crutches following a leg injury. Chey said he was injured during a tennis match earlier this week but the accident could not prevent him from attending the important meeting between the two countries, which is also crucial to his campaign to attract the expo to Busan in 2030.Chey has been heartily campaigning for Korea's bid to host World Expo 2030 in Busan since the Korean government appointed him as a special envoy to promote Korea's expo bid. Other top Korean business leaders such as Samsung Group's de facto leader, Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, are also named as special expo envoys. During Friday's meeting, the KCCI and the JCCI also agreed to pursue more economic cooperation and exchange in line with their improving bilateral relations. Among others, they will seek to work together to tackle common challenges such as their low fertility rates and fast-aging societies; restoration of the supply chain; net-zero solutions; setup of an AI technology governance system; cyber security; digitalization; and startup acceleration. The dual-chamber meeting was attended by 30 business leaders from both countries, including the chairpersons of several Japanese chambers such as the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Fukuoka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. By Jeong-Soo [email protected] Seo edited this article.