The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said it is pursuing to hold the Global Business Coalition (GBC)’s plenary meeting in Seoul in 2020, the biggest conference of business organizations across the world, with an agenda focused on private initiatives for investment and development in North Korea with eyes on post-denuclearization opening and opportunities in the impoverished country.

The FKI, a lobby group for South Korea’s conglomerates, said it proposed to hold GBC’s 2020 plenary meeting in Seoul during the GBC 2018 meetings of sherpas held in Paris on Tuesday (local time). Established in 2012, GBC is an alliance of industry and business organizations from 14 economies accounting for nearly half of the global gross domestic product. The coalition serves as a link between policymakers and business communities to contribute to the economic growth at both regional and international levels, according to the GBC.

The Korean business lobby group pitched the idea at a time when the two Koreas are showing strong will to bring peace and make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free with a goal of signing a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended Korean War in 1953.

Once permanent peace arrives in the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize by around 2020, North Korea would need supports from outside to rebuild its economy, said FKI during the Sherpa meeting. Seoul would be the best place to discuss international-level business and economic aid for Pyongyang.

The FKI also suggested that having a GBC meeting in Seoul would also help draw participation from China and Japan’s industry associations.

Separately on the same day in Paris, the FKI signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish Industry and Business Association to hold the first ‘Korea-Turkey CEO Forum’ in Seoul in the first half of next year to reinforce cooperation on developing infrastructure and future growth engines related to digital economy and Industry 4.0.

By Kang Doo-soon and Cho Jeehyun

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