o Guangdong Province’s CEO survey – 90% hopes for trade relation 

A survey conducted by Gyeonggi Province questioned major CEOs from Guangdong Province, China, and showed that 90% of respondents hoped to form a trade relation with Korean companies. 

The survey subjected 24 participants to “Training in Korea for Guangdong’s Public Company CEOs” co-sponsored by Gyeonggi and Guangdong between march 15 and April 12. Most respondents predicted that Korea will become China’s most important economic partner rather than the EU, Japan or the US. 

The industries of the respondents’ choice for cooperation were automobiles/ steel/ logistics/ shipping/ electronics/ telecommunication and petro-chemistry. They considered the aforementioned industries to be world-class standards despite the relatively small size of Korea’s economy. 

It was also found that the training trip to Korea improved visitors’ understanding on Gyeonggi, to bring it closer on level to their high recognition of the country. 

The pre-training recognition rate of the province’s businesses and products only recorded 8%; yet 96% of trainees answered that the program increased their understanding on Gyeonggi’s economy and industries. 

Lectures on the province’s development strategies and visits to various companies lead them to believe that Gyeonggi is the centre of Korean economy with prospering SMBs and advanced industries. They decided that Gyeonggi was an optimal place for Guangdong to have long-term relations in the sectors of trade, shipping, semiconductor, electronic and tourism. 

One participant stated, “The experience in Korea allowed me to meet the friendly and sincere people of the country. It was definitely more enjoyable and useful than ones in Hong Kong, Japan and the US. I hope that the trilateral relation of China-Japan-Korea will accelerate the economic growth of the Northeast Asia.” 

Guangdong is the home for 80 ~ 90% of key industries in China, which has become the world’s sixth largest economy. It shares 38%, 27% and 30% of China’s foreign trade, foreign investment hosting, and export from Korea, respectively.