Chinese and South Korean leaders have pledged to sign a bilateral trade agreement by the end of this year and introduce direct trading of their currencies to spur cross-border renminbi transactions and strengthen economic ties between two of Asia’s largest economies.
The agreement was made yesterday between China’s President Xi Jinping and his Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye on his first visit to Seoul. “Through these measures, exchange between companies and citizens in the two countries will become faster and more free,” Ms Park said at a joint press conference.
South Korea also received a Rmb80bn ($13bn) quota to invest in Chinese capital markets, the same amount as the UK and France recently received, and compares with Rmb50bn for Singapore and Rmb270bn for Hong Kong.