TCS

On 5 October 2022, TCS consultative board headed by Secretary-General OU Boqian paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to seek insights on future directions of trilateral economic cooperation and the roles of TCS. Deputy Secretary-Generals BEK Bum-hym and SAKATA Natsuko attended the meetings.At METI, fruitful discussion was held between SG OU and Mr. MATSUO Takehiko, Director-General of Trade Policy Bureau regarding RCEP, CJK FTA, cross-border business promotion, and e-commerce. In particular, SG OU underlined the high expectation from the civil society on enhanced regional economic integration under relevant multilateral trade frameworks including RCEP. She expressed readiness of TCS to continue working with the three countries’ ministries to support trade cooperation in the future.Mr. MATSUO appreciated the efforts of TCS, and reiterating the significance of RCEP as the first trade scheme in which China, Japan and the ROK are all members of, he wished that ensuring the full implementation of the RCEP agreement will pave the way for expanded cooperation opportunities in the future. With regards to e-commerce, he expressed interest in exchanging ideas on how to provide good environment for consumers and businesses in light of the difference in the regulatory frameworks of the three countries.▲Group photo at METI At JETRO, SG OU met Mr. SASAKI Nobuhiko, Chairman, and acknowledging JETRO’s efforts in disseminating the RCEP Agreement to Japanese business sector, she sought for support of JETRO as TCS continues to organize relevant seminars to provide a platform for exchanges among various stakeholders. She also requested opportunities to learn from JETRO’s expertise on trade and investment-related statistics.With gratitude to the long-term partnership between JETRO and TCS, Mr. SASAKI welcomed further opportunities to cooperate with TCS. He noted the urgent need for sustainable recovery from the disruption brought by the pandemic and underscored the importance of coordinated action to make better business environment. In this regard, he showed high expectations to future TCS projects concerning e-commerce, digital economy and female entrepreneurship.▲Group photo at JETRO

On October 4, TCS Secretary-General Amb. OU Boqian and Deputy Secretaries-General BEK Bum-hym and SAKATA Natsuko (collectively the “Consultative Board”) paid a courtesy call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and met with H.E. TAKEI Shunsuke, State Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.State Minister TAKEI welcomed TCS Consultative Board to Japan for its courtesy visit. He highly spoke of TCS proactively carrying out activities to build up public confidence in the Trilateral Cooperation through people-to-people exchange programs with focus on youths, promoting understanding on Trilateral Cooperation among the three countries through strengthening public relations for the future-oriented trilateral cooperation. The International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation (IFTC) 2022 held in June comprehensively covered various areas and frameworks of Trilateral Cooperation. He expected the future IFTC will further serve as a platform of the three countries for valuable policy recommendations. He believed the foundation of the confidence in the trilateral cooperation will be strengthened by continuing the people-to-people exchanges in the various levels and widely sharing the results of the exchanges with the public. He reassured that Japan would like to continue supporting TCS in this regard. He re-recognized the passion of TCS and its staff on Trilateral Cooperation as well as the important role of the TCS, believing that a sound and solid Trilateral Cooperation is crucial to peace and prosperity in the region and beyond. He looked forward to participating in future TCS events in coming months, including the launching event of Trilateral Youth Exchange Network (TYEN) to be scheduled in February.Secretary-General Amb. OU extended her gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for its great support to the TCS. Noting the TCS Board took office in a critical time as this year marks the 50th anniversary for the Japan-China diplomatic relation, and the 30th anniversary for the China-ROK diplomatic relation, SG OU reassured the TCS’ commitment to further promoting the future-oriented Trilateral Cooperation through facilitating the governmental consultative meetings, strengthening TCS’ advisory role, and implementing more unique and value-adding programs, in particular youth programs. SG OU and DSG SAKATA emphasized TCS’ allocation of 72% of the budget for the TCS programs in order for the public to see that trilateral cooperation keeps its momentum in the midst of deteriorating mutual perception among the three countries. SG OU sought more advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the trilateral cooperation.Followed by the meeting with State Minister TAKEI, the TCS Consultative Board paid a courtesy call to Mr. FUNAKOSHI Takehiro, Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and exchanged views on the progress and prospect of the trilateral cooperation. Director General FUNAKOSHI appreciated for TCS’ efforts for promoting trilateral cooperation, seeing practical cooperation will serve to ameliorate the tense around bilateral relations and more frequent face-to-face exchanges will improve trilateral cooperation. Echoing with DG FUNAKOSHI that both bi- and tri-lateral relations reciprocally affect each other, SG OU expected Japan, China, and ROK to see and use trilateral cooperation as an important alternative channel to reinvigorate the bilateral relations.Following the meeting with Director-General FUNAKOSHI, TCS Consultative Board had an official talk with Mr. MIBAE Taisuke, Deputy Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. Deputy Director-General MIBAE underlined that “fairness, neutrality, equality, transparency, and accountability” are the key features that TCS needs for strengthening the importance of TCS and for tackling the deteriorating mutual perception among the three countries, and he regarded the Trilateral Statistics Hub (TSH) is a very meaningful example of strengthening practical and functional policy recommendation capacity of TCS. Furthermore, DDG MIBAE valued TCS’ involvement with a wide range of stakeholders from youths to business sectors, and from think-tanks to media as engaging diverse stakeholders is crucial for improving mutual public perception in order to influence the governments and politicians.►Group photo of TCS Consultative Board with Director-General FUNAKOSHI

On 4 October 2022, TCS delegation headed by Secretary-General OU Boqian visited the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, and the Japan Centre for Economic Research. Deputy Secretary-Generals BEK Bum-hym and SAKATA Natsuko also attended the meetings. At the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), SG OU met Mr. TAWARA Yasuo, Director-General of Global Strategy Bureau, as well as representatives of the Statistics Bureau of Japan. SG OU underlined that in its second decade of development, TCS continues to support the Trilateral Cooperation mechanism by strengthening its government advisory roles and promoting public awareness, and for such purpose, developed the Trilateral Statistics Hub to provide gateway to comprehensive understanding on the development trend of the three countries respectively and collectively. SG OU expressed TCS’ readiness to contribute to Trilateral Cooperation in the information and communication technology as well as statistics area.Director-General TAWARA appreciated the TCS efforts, and in light of ICT cooperation, noted the need for further activating information exchange among the working-level officials of the three countries. He also highly evaluated the significance of the statistics platform provided by the TCS. He expressed support to explore future cooperation to further strengthen cooperation in statistics, including capacity building.▲Group Photo at Ministry of Internal Affairs and CommunicationsIn the meeting with Mr. IWATA Kazumasa, Chairman of the Japan Centre for Economic Research (JCER), SG OU appreciated him for collaborating with TCS on various occasions and asked for his insights on what constructive roles TCS can play in further promoting the economic cooperation among the three countries amidst rapidly changing international political context. The two sides discussed common agendas that needs to be urgently addressed and what constructive roles TCS can play. Mr. IWATA underlined how the unstable international economic context makes Trilateral Cooperation even more significant, and raised digitalization, green economy and widening inequalities as potential areas for future cooperation.JCER was one of the collaborating think-tanks for the TCS’ flagship publication Trilateral Economic Report 2011-2020 launched in June 2022, which provided comprehensive review of the past 10-year economic development of the three countries and analysed the implications of the emerging issues including digital economy. Mr. IWATA also joined the International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation 2022 held in June and shared his insights on RCEP and trilateral trade cooperation.▲Group photo with Mr. IWATA Kazumasa, JCER

On 3 October 2022, TCS delegation headed by Secretary-General OU Boqian visited the Keidanren and met Managing Director Mr. HARA Ichiro. Deputy Secretary-Generals BEK Bum-hym and SAKATA Natsuko were also present.SG OU expressed sincere gratitude for the long-term support from Keidanren on TCS activities and projects including TCS’ annual flagship event Trilateral Entrepreneurs Forum and publication An Evolving Trilateral Cooperation: Review and Outlook. Noting the entry into effect of the RCEP agreement in 2022, she underlined the key roles that business sector can play towards lasting peace and common prosperity of the three countries, and asked for Keidanren’s continued support in Trilateral Cooperation.Mr. HARA welcomed SG OU and the delegation, and appreciated TCS efforts to promote business exchanges on various important agendas such as aging and female entrepreneurship. He also noted supply chain connectivity and cross-border data flow as areas of further promotion for Japan.The two parties agreed to further develop its partnership to accelerate trilateral economic cooperation based on shared interests.Cross-border business cooperation and entrepreneurship in the three countries is one of the key focus areas of TCS. Since 2014, Keidanren has been a sponsor of the TCS project Trilateral Entrepreneurs Forum (TEF), together with China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) and Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) among others. Most recently, TCS organised the Forum on the theme of women’s economic empowerment for inclusive and sustainable growth in August 2022.▲Meeting in progress▲Group photo