Daegu-Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone Authority signed a cooperation agreement with China Small Business Association in a full-fledged search for potential investment targets in China

Daegu-Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone Authority (DGFEZ) and China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (CASME) agreed to expand the breadth and scope of mutual exchanges between the companies operating in the Free Economic Zone and the member companies of the Association in a signing ceremony held at 16:00 on March 4.
The largest organization of SMEs in China with 230,000 members, the Association (Chairman Li Zibin) is an affiliated organization of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The Association is a non-profit organization consisting of SMEs, large enterprises that support SMEs, and diverse experts on SMEs. It was established in 2006 with the aim of bridging the government and its members and of providing its own policy initiatives.
With the agreement, the two parties will establish an all-out cooperation system to jointly support the business activities between the companies operating in the Free Economic Zone and Chinese members of the Association. They also agreed to utilize national and international networks to identify potential investment opportunities, and to expand and deepen the Sino-Korean networks to promote shared development of the companies that are active in the two countries.
The ceremony is the first such MOU event held by the DGFEZ with an economic agency of the Chinese central government. In the signing ceremony, Xiang Shui, Vice Chairman of the Association (Chairman of the Belt and Road Committee of the CASME) requested an active participation of the Free Economic Zone companies in the diverse projects implemented as part of the Belt and Road initiative as well as other overseas trade/investment projects, in the wake of the resurgent Sino Korean trades in recent years. In doing so, the DGFEZ succeeded in establishing a key platform for practical Sino Korean cooperation in the future between SMEs in the two countries.
After the MOU with the CASME, Commissioner Lee visited Hong-Jiang Group, a leading health-food manufacturer in China, to promote Suseong medical district and its advanced medical complex. Commissioner Lee also met investment consultants of Xioning Group to discuss capital investment in Daegu-Gyeongbuk region.
Since the inauguration of commissioner Lee as the 4^th director of DGFEZ (October 27, 2017), numerous foreign companies are hurrying to invest in the Free Economic Zone. In particular, OSTE Co., Ltd. has decided to invest US$ 7.5 million in a joint venture with a Chinese company in the Technopolis district to produce manufacturing equipment for flat screen displays (December 12, 2017). And Tomei Engineering Co. of Japan (December 17, 2005) decided to invest US$2.3M in Gyeongsan Knowledge Industry District while Daeyoung Electronics Co., Ltd. has decided to establish a R&D integration center jointly with NTD Group of Vietnam in Suseong Medical District (December 12, 2017, including US$5.5M).
"The business cooperation agreement with the Association will further accelerate the investments by foreign companies which have already been growing since my inauguration” Commissioner Lee said, while pledging that "we will do our utmost to strengthen the competitiveness of the local economy through close cooperation with the Association in anticipation of accelerated entry of Chinese companies into Daegu and Gyeongbuk area now that the platform for promoting the Free Economic Zone to China has been established.”