S. Korea to focus on easing virus restrictions for businesspeople in upcoming G20 teleconference

South Korea will make the case for minimizing travel restrictions aimed at combating the new coronavirus for businesspeople in next week's teleconference among the leaders of the Group of 20 nations, a foreign ministry official said Thursday.

Seoul has been preparing for the gathering that Saudi Arabia, this year's chair of the G-20 summit, has said will take place sometime next week to "present a coordinated set of policies to protect people and safeguard the global economy."

"We are preparing to make our case to ensure convenience for entrepreneurs' activities by minimizing entry restrictions or curbs on movement for them," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Seoul has recently been in talks with about 20 countries, including China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Turkey, to explore ways to grant South Korean businesspeople exceptions to their entry restrictions.

It has stressed that if the business travelers arrive in their destinations with health certificates showing negative COVID-19 results, they should be allowed in to help reduce the economic repercussions of the pandemic.

Seoul officials said that about seven or eight countries have so far exempted some South Korean businesspeople in specific economic projects from their entry restrictions in a sign of progress in Seoul's stepped-up diplomacy.

The G20 teleconference plan came after President Moon Jae-in floated the idea last week of the online gathering to muster international cooperation to staunch the spread of the global pandemic. (Yonhap)