Chey Tae-won Pushes for Korea-Japan Economic Partnership 'Big Tent'... Uniting Business and Academia

Permanent Cooperation Platform in the Works to Advance Korea-Japan Economic Partnership
Three-Stage Roadmap Proposed; Cooperation to Expand in AI and Semiconductors

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, is moving to establish a permanent “Big Tent”-style cooperation platform involving business, academic and research communities in both countries to turn Korea-Japan economic partnership into concrete projects. The plan is to pool the two countries’ capacity for cooperation, identify shared challenges, and develop them into practical policies and projects.

Choi Taewon, chairman of SK Group and the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, delivers a video keynote address at the “Conference on a Roadmap for Korea-Japan Economic Cooperation,” jointly hosted by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies and the East Asia Institute at the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies Conference Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 12th. Chey Institute for Advanced Studies

The Chey Institute for Advanced Studies and the East Asia Institute said on November 13 that they had jointly hosted the “Conference on a Roadmap for Korea-Japan Economic Partnership: From Vision to Action” on November 12 at the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies Conference Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

In a video keynote address, Chairman Chey stressed the need to develop the vision for Korea-Japan economic partnership into concrete implementation strategies. To that end, he proposed defining, step by step, the level of economic cooperation to be achieved in three years, the industries in which the two countries could generate shared results in five years, and the form of economic partnership that would deliver tangible benefits to businesses and the public in ten years.

Chairman Chey also said that preparations were underway for a permanent “Big Tent”-style cooperation platform to provide a foundation for sustained economic partnership. Its core functions would be to share the results of cooperation accumulated by existing institutions, identify shared challenges by industry, and connect them to policies and projects.

“If the roadmap shows us the way forward, the platform will be the foundation for bringing together the strength to walk that path together,” Chairman Chey said.

At the conference, Korean and Japanese researchers also presented a three-stage economic partnership roadmap spanning approximately 20 years, from 2026 to 2045. From 2026 to 2031, the two countries would pursue cooperation on specific issues, including Korea’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). From 2032 to 2036, the plan is to structure cooperation through a declaration on comprehensive economic partnership. For 2037 to 2045, they proposed institutionalizing cooperation by concluding a Korea-Japan Economic Community Agreement, among other measures.

Industry-specific cooperation priorities discussed included joint procurement of energy and critical minerals, joint development of artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, and the creation of training data for physical AI. Proposals also included combining the two countries’ semiconductor manufacturing, materials and equipment technologies, and upgrading industrial robots with AI.

Participants also proposed linking a “Korea-Japan Economic 3+3 Consultative Body,” involving the two governments’ foreign affairs, industry and trade, and finance authorities, with a private-sector Big Tent platform to build a sustainable cooperation framework that can withstand political changes, such as a change of government.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.