In mid-June, South Korea's trade ministry announced that the South Korea-China free trade pact will be the government's number one priority, in line with their latest strategy to expand Seoul's FTA reach. And President Park's visit to China may help accelerate its progress, as well as further strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

The sixth round of negotiations on South Korea-China free trade agreement will take place in early July.

These talks have been on-going for more than a year, but still face difficulties such as strong opposition from South Korea's agricultural sector.

But President Park Geun-hye's trip to Beijing, starting Thursday, may accelerate its progress.

Pil-Soo Choi, Ph.D., research fellow, Korea Institute For Int'l Economic Policy, said, "Chinese media has called President Park 'Lao Pengyou,' which is 'old friend.' This is one of the highest praise in Chinese term and I think there might be speeding up in negotiating in FTA and make some new achievement in the new era."

After Beijing, President Park Geun-hye will also be visiting Xi-an, a three-thousand-year-old city and a base for China's western development. South Korean conglomerate Samsung invested 7 billion dollars to build a semiconductor factory by end of this year, the largest investment made by a foreign company in China.

Pil-Soo Choi said, "Middle and west provinces in China want to raise manufacturing facilities but Korean companies used to invest mainly in eastern regions. But changes have made rapidly, one of the dramatic example is Samsung Electornics invest in Xi-an, and many Korean companies can go further west and examples of cooperation could occur more."

Over seventy South Korean business leaders, a record number, will be accompanying the President on her four-day visit to China. Half of whom represent small to medium-sized companies.

Pil-Soo Choi said,"Many small companies in Korea have technologies and products which can be applied in Chinese market, but they do not have local networks in China. And private companies in China can provide visit and they can get global network. So by doing so, both parties, Korea's small and medium companies and private companies in China will have win-win strategy."

South Korea-China relations are already in the "strategic co-operative partnership" stage. And locals hope that President Park's visit to Beijing, with the largest business delegation yet, will help South Korea tap into China's domestic market.

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