China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang. Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry

China and South Korea have on Wednesday established a personnel exchange "fast passage" to maintain trade coopera-tion and keep supply chain open between the two countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The decision was made at the second video conference under the joint control and prevention mechanism between China and South Korea on Wednesday. The "fast passage" will be open to urgently-needed commercial, logistic, production, and tech-nical service personnel, said China's For-eign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a regular press conference on Thursday.

China and South Korea are important neighbors and trade partners. The "fast passage" will provide convenience to people from both countries who are in urgent need for resuming production and help maintain trade cooperation and keep the industry and supply chains open under the condition of controlling the disease, Geng said.

The establishment of the "fast passage" will help not only both countries better promote pandemic control and economic and social development, but also the sta-ble operations of industrial and supply chains in the region and the world, the spokesperson noted.

While the general principle is to achieve the reciprocal benefit, concrete measures are not fully corresponding because the two countries' epidemic prevention measures are not the same, Geng said.

China will have ten provinces and cities in the first batch to apply the "fast passage." South Korean companies will first need to submit a request and receive approval, the South Korean personnel can then apply for Chinese visa according to related regulation. After passing health tests, they can see their quarantine time shortened after coming to China.

China hopes Chinese personnel to South Korea can request relief from quarantine when they apply for South Korean visas if they fit into South Korean conditions, pass quarantine inspections and accept South Korea's dynamic epidemic control management.

The China-South Korea "fast passage" is an innovative measure as the epidemic control is becoming regular. Both sides will enhance communication and coordination, and continuously optimize the solution un-der their domestic epidemic situation and disease control and prevention policies, Geng said.

Global Times