- President Lee Jae Myung urged South Korean and Chinese startups to strengthen cooperation to drive innovation and new growth
- He called for a “competitive yet cooperative” partnership to deepen economic ties and restore bilateral relations
- Lee pledged greater support for entrepreneurs and promoted cooperation in areas like AI and cultural content
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung advocated for a closer alliance between the Korean and Chinese startup ecosystems, which he considers a necessary step to jointly explore areas where their respective strengths would result in innovations and new growth drivers.
The President’s statements were made during the Korea–China Venture Startup Summit held in Shanghai, which gathered nearly 400 people including startup creators, venture investors, and government officials from both sides.
“Past cooperation took the form of combining the Republic of Korea's capital and technology with China's land and labor, but China has reached and even surpassed Korea in terms of accumulated capital and technological capacity. The two countries now need to forge a new level of economic cooperation”, he stated.
The President at first said that he wanted to see a relationship between Seoul and Beijing that was “competitive yet cooperative.” He went on to say that the two countries should compete only in areas where this is truly necessary and that they should also be able to cooperate in areas of mutual interest and capability, particularly in the new and high-growth sectors.
He further said that this type of approach would not only sign the maturity of the economic relationship but also be a factor in the sustainability of the development.
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“If Korea's venture startup ecosystem is organically connected with China's vast startup environment, the two countries will be able to discover larger and more powerful growth engines”, he added.
The president stated that his tour in China was meant to reset the bilateral ties to a "normal track" and create a partnership that is more future-oriented. He pointed out that the next phase of economic cooperation between the two countries will be determined by the growth led by innovation and the part played by startups in this matter.
“The government should share the risks of starting up new businesses so that failure is not a setback but an asset for future success”, he noted.
Lee, likewise, promised to provide more support from the government in order to create a business climate where young entrepreneurs are able to come up with new ideas and take the risk of failure without being afraid of it.
He had also participated in a business forum in Beijing along with senior officials from top South Korean and Chinese companies, where the discussion was about the cooperation in artificial intelligence and cultural content areas.