On July 8, 2003, Premier Wen Jiabao met with visiting Republic of Korea (ROK) President Roh Moo-hyun.

Wen said that during the meeting between ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and President Hu Jintao on the previous day, the two heads of state defined bilateral relationship as all-round cooperative partnership, mapping out the future direction of the development of bilateral relationship. The Chinese side would like to work with the ROK side to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state.

Wen expressed satisfaction with the rapid development of China-ROK economic and trade relationship in recent years. He said that the two economies are highly complementary, with huge potential for cooperation and broad prospects. The Chinese side will continue to identify cooperation with the ROK as one of the key areas in foreign economic and trade cooperation, and would like to further expand and deepen economic and trade relations with the ROK and promote bilateral common prosperity based upon the existing basis of sound cooperation and in the spirit of equality, mutual benefits, and complementarity.

Wen also put forward proposals on cooperation in high tech, resources development, and environmental protection industry and other areas, and hoped that ROK enterprises would actively participate in the development of China’s west.

Roh said that bilateral economic exchanges are very active, with closer ties in trade and investment. The ROK government would like to further expand mutually beneficial exchanges and cooperation and work with China for common development and prosperity in the region, especially in Northeast Asia.