At noon of November 1 local time, Premier Li Keqiang attended in Seoul a welcome luncheon held by the business community of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and delivered a keynote speech titled "Let China-ROK Cooperation Constantly Yield New Beneficial Fruits".

Li Keqiang said that during this visit to the ROK, President Park Geun-hye and other ROK leaders and I have reached extensive consensus on consolidating political mutual trust and deepening cooperation in economy and trade as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and signed a series of cooperative agreements covering areas such as economy and trade, investment and industry.

Li Keqiang pointed out that friends can be new while neighbors are not optional. China will stick to the path of peaceful development, and is willing to work with the ROK to serve as the moral force maintaining historical justice and safeguard the common homeland of Northeast Asia. Both countries should vigorously advance mutual opening-up of markets and integrated development, accelerate domestic ratifying procedures of the China-ROK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and expand cooperation in all areas including customs, quality inspection and logistics. The two sides can build up synergy between respective innovative development strategies, co-build a China-ROK innovation industrial park and establish a platform for cooperation in youth entrepreneurship and innovation. The Chinese side supports the alignment between the "Belt and Road" initiative and the "Eurasia Initiative", and is willing to, together with the ROK side, give full play to respective comparative advantages and take advantage of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and other financial platforms to conduct cooperation in international production capacity and explore overseas third-party markets. China and the ROK have decided to establish a RMB-KRW direct exchange mechanism. China agrees to raise the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) quota for the ROK to 120 billion yuan, supports the ROK to issue RMB-denominated sovereign debt in bond markets among China's banks, and supports expanding of the pilot zones of RMB loans through the ROK's banks, so as to promote bilateral cooperation in entity economies. The two countries should also continuously deepen exchanges and cooperation in areas including education, culture, health care, think tanks, media and local affairs, so as to consolidate the public support for bilateral friendship.

Li Keqiang also introduced China's economic situation. He pointed out that at present China's economy is still running in a reasonable range. Though in a short term some indicators have undergone fluctuations, the fundamentals for sound growth in the long run have not changed. China is vigorously pushing forward structural reform, and is able to properly cope with all kinds of risks and keep its economy growing at a medium-to-high speed. China will further loosen the access threshold for foreign investment and create a more just, transparent and legalized business environment. It is hoped that the ROK enterprises will take the lead to share the new dividends of China's reform and development.

Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry Park Yong-maan gave a welcoming speech. Over 400 people including leaders of large enterprises and representatives of industrial and commercial circles of the ROK attended the luncheon.