Park Young-sun, the Seoul mayor candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, has vowed to strengthen cooperation with Europe to drive the city to move toward a global city at a meeting with the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Monday.

The candidate attended a special meeting hosted by the ECCK and shared opinions with European entrepreneurs on the business landscape in Seoul and ways to further develop Seoul into a global economic hub, the ECCK said Tuesday.

During the meeting, Park discussed her vision and pledges for the city and ideas to improve the investment environment for the city’s foreign business community.

“According to a report this morning, Korea has re-entered the top 10 in world trade list among OECD countries and Seoul ranked No.1 in global innovation cities and No. 5 in research and development despite the pandemic last year,” she said.

Park added, “Seoul was able to develop this much because many European companies were together. I would like to thank the ECCK for its role as a bridge for active economic exchanges between Korea and the European Union.”

In response, ECCK Chairperson Dirk Lukat said, “Thanks to Park’s strong leadership and concerted efforts leading the ministry (of SMEs and Startups) over the past two years we were able to achieve many fruitful results from those meetings.”

“Based on her experience and capabilities as a veteran politician and her expertise in economic affairs, we strongly believe her vision will lead Seoul into an even better place for business and innovation to foster with the improvement of livelihoods of the citizens.”

The ECCK is a non-profit organization with a total of 71 trillion won in sales, 50,000 employees and 360 members, serving as a platform for information exchange between Korea and Europe to create a mutually beneficial and transparent business environment for Korean and European companies.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)