Speaker Jose de Venecia and Korean Parliament Speaker Lim Chae Jung hailed yesterday South Korea’s almost $ 2.5-billion equity investments in the Philippines.
De Venecia also expressed gratitude to the Korean Speaker for the more than 500,000 Korean tourists visiting the country yearly and the decision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to adopt the Korean currency Won as part of Philippine reserves.
He likewise told the visiting president of Korea’s unicameral parliament that he would propose the visit to Pyongyang of ASEAN’s parliamentary speakers to convince North Korea to follow the Chinese and Vietnamese "models in economic development and opening up to the world."
De Venecia said this could be a "complementary parallel effort to the 6-nation talks" on the North Korean nuclear issue.
De Venecia said this effort would "not threaten" North Korean President Kim Jong Il because he could keep his control of the Korean Workers Party in the same way that China’s Deng Xiaoping kept his control of the Communist Party when China opened up to the world.
The Korean Speaker is accompanied by Congressman Chung Eui-yong, chairman of the Korean ruling party Uri’s foreign relations committee and vice-chairman of the Asian Political Parties Forum, where de Venecia is currently three-term chairman.
The Korean Speaker and his wife, the Chungs, and Korean Ambassador Hong Jong-ki and his wife, flew to Pangasinan with Speaker de Venecia and his wife, Gina, to observe the Pangasinan fishponds and farmlands.
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