Three-way approach gets down to business

Exchanges promoted between China, Japan and the ROK

On February 14, Linc, a two-year-old Tokyo company offering foreign students - Chinese in particular - online education to help them find places at Japan's top universities, raised funding of 100 million yen ($905,635) from two Japanese investment firms.

Together with two young Chinese, the then-25-year-old Zhong Siyao founded the company in 2016 after graduating from Keio University and working at a large Japanese company. He is now Linc's chief executive officer.

At a seminar in Tokyo on July 3 for startups, established companies and public policymakers from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea to network, Zhong was not hesitant in expressing confidence in his young company's future.

Like Zhong, Kim Jeongyun from the Republic of Korea also studied in Japan - majoring in mechanical engineering. He is now planning manager at the Reset Company in his home country, which produces robotic cleaners to remove snow from roofs. The company is setting its sights on the market in Japan, where a rapidly aging population finds it difficult to perform such tasks.

Kim said his company is still working hard to win Japanese customers, who consider their country's products to be the world's best. But he wants to give it a try.

Amid intensifying trade disputes triggered by US President Donald Trump, the networking meeting in Tokyo was the latest event held by the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat to promote exchanges between the three East Asian countries to benefit them all.

The secretariat was founded in 2011 for the efficient promotion and management of cooperation projects.

Lee Jong-heon, the secretariat's secretary-general, said closer cooperation between China, Japan and the ROK, which began in 1999, is significant in building an open global economy. The trilateral trade volume reached more than $640 billion last year, a year-on-year rise of 11 percent.

Policymakers from the three countries shared their experience in recruiting talent and encouraging startups.

In Beijing, the Zhongguancun technology hub welcomes more than 20,000 new startups annually.

More than 100,000 companies have registered in the tech hub, according to Zhang Guoqing, chairman of the Z-Park + Strategic Emerging Industry Talent Development Center.

In its second annual Top Tech Cities in the World ranking report released in November, Expert Market, a business resources company, gave the Zhongguancun tech hub top spot because of its favorable climate for early-stage funding and Beijing's affordable cost of living.