The head of Korea’s leading trade agency on Friday declared “the era of ‘Made for China,’” calling for the government, industries and others to put all efforts into drawing measures against the volatile Chinese economy.
“The Chinese economy is rapidly switching to a domestic market focus from the processing trade industry polity, and we knew this was coming,” Kim In-ho, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, said at a press briefing Friday.
“Koreans have two conflicting views on China: one, our fierce competitor; and the other, our largest market. You can whine about the changes and reminisce about the good old days, or find a new opportunity in the Chinese consumer market with cosmetic goods and cultural content and other consumer goods that are widely popular there,” he said.
“We need to get there ahead of others,” he added, while the organization’s Institute for International Trade president Kim Keuk-soo called for a change in public perception on China, from the manufacturing base to the retail market.
Kim In-ho, the former presidential secretary of economics, called for the governmental deregulations to encourage companies to bulk up to tackle the change of the landscape of trade industry.