Seoul mayor discusses air quality issues in Beijing

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is visiting Beijing from Sunday for four days. He plans to have a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his visit.

Seoul City explained on Saturday that the mayor’s visit was materialized to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Seoul-Beijing relations. Park will discuss how to improve air quality and strengthen bilateral cooperation on various issues including the economy and youth, according to the city government.

On Saturday afternoon, Park starts his journey by attending a tourism event to promote tourism of Seoul City. He is scheduled to host a cooking show to give out tiramisu cake, made of jujube and ginseng that resemble Gwanghwamun Gate of Seoul and Tiananmen of Beijing, at a booth titled " Live Seoul Style Playground in Beijing" in a promotion exhibition hall, located in 789 Art Zone, Beijing.

On Sunday, the two cities are to hold a joint forum on climatic and environmental issues to discuss agendas for joint research regarding air quality. After the mayor attends the event, he will have a speech at Beijing University.

Park will join the second South Korea-China Local Government Summit on Monday to debate how to strengthen practical cooperation on air quality matters. Korean and Chinese local government officials get together to boost exchange and cooperation at the event. The previous one was held for the first time in 2016. This year will see leaders from seven South Korean cities and provinces including Seoul and ten Chinese provinces and cities including Beijing. Mayor Park will preside over this year’s meeting on behalf of the Governors Association of Korea. Then, he plans to meet up with Premier Li.

Leading SMEs and startups located in Seoul are to accompany Park on his visit to Beijing. The Seoul metropolitan government and the Bank of China stand to open and assist in a week event aimed at attracting Chinese investment to Seoul, starting from Wednesday for two days.


yeah@donga.com