CHINA and South Korea on Thursday agreed on measures that will expand the use of China’s currency and boost trade as President Xi Jinping made his first presidential visit to the Korean Peninsula.

    Xi was accompanied by 250 business executives, including luminaries such as Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba e-commerce empire, and Robin Li, chairman of search engine Baidu. The Korean Chamber of Commerce said it was the biggest-ever foreign business delegation to South Korea.

    A statement from South Korea’s finance ministry and central bank said the South Korean won will become directly exchangeable with the yuan. The decision also makes the yuan only the second currency after the U.S. dollar that is directly convertible with the won.

    China also agreed that South Korean institutional investors approved by local authorities will be able to invest up to 80 billion yuan (US$13 billion) in Chinese stocks.

    South Korea’s two-way trade with China was US$229 billion last year, exceeding the combined value of South Korea’s trade with the United States and Japan. Xi told reporters after a summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye that the two countries will strive to boost their trade to top US$300 billion.

    South Korea and China also announced new measures to boost South Koreans’ use of the yuan for investment and saving. South Korea previously relied on a bank in Hong Kong to settle yuan payments. But a Chinese bank in Seoul will now take on that role.(SD-Xinhua)