Samsung vice chairman meets Chinese vice premier

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met Wang Yang, vice premier for economic affairs at State Council of China, who has recently emerged as a political heavyweight, at Hotel Shilla in Seoul on Friday and promised for expanded mutual exchanges.

“Thanks to increased human exchanges between Korea and China, more Chinese people are now visiting Hotel Shilla and the Everland theme park,” Lee said. “Samsung will actively participate in vitalizing mutual exchanges between the two nations by enhancing cooperation with local governments and businesses in China. Vice Premier Wang is also known to have expressed his strong willingness in joining hands with Samsung for mid and long-term business cooperation.

Lee met Vice Premier Wang in Beijing in February 2014 when the former was visiting the city with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun. Back then, Wang was the Communist Party Secretary of Guangdong and all of them had a chance to talk for about an hour. Wang had also visited Samsung branches in China three times, which includes his visit to Samsung mobile phone factory in Huizhou in 2009.

It is said that the Chinese vice premier, who will be staying in Korea until Saturday, will meet LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo. LG invested some 4 trillion won (approx. 3.7 billion U.S. dollars) to build an 8th generation liquid crystal display (LCD) factory in Guangdong last year when Wang was serving as Communist Party Secretary for the region.

Earlier that day, Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan had a talk with Wang over mutual cooperation between the two nations in the areas of economy and culture at Lotte Hotel in Seoul. They vowed to work together for Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to be signed and take effect in a swift manner.