China holds open attitude on ties with S. Korea: MOFCOM

China and South Korea are vital economic and trade partners as the two economies are highly complementary and have large growth potential, a Chinese trade official said Thursday.

Gao Feng, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce ( MOFCOM), told a briefing on Thursday that China has an active and open attitude toward economic and trade cooperation with South Korea.

Trade between the two nations hit $ 202.2 billion from January to September, up 11.4 percent on a yearly basis, data from MOFCOM showed.

In January, China and South Korea started the third round of the tax reduction process on the basis of the China- South Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Give the context of sluggish growth in the world economy and the rising trend of protectionism, the stable implementation of the China- South Korea Free Trade Agreement will play a positive role in advancing bilateral economic and trade exchange and boosting economic growth, Gao said.

“As we have often stressed, the economic and trade cooperation and exchange between the two countries is based on public opinion,” Gao said, adding that “we hope that South Korea can practice what it preaches to properly deal with relevant issues to create a sound environment for continuous development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.”