Hong Soon-young, South Korea's foreign affairs and trade minister, met Tung Chee Hwa, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, in Seoul Tuesday to discuss ways of increasing economic cooperation.

Hong and Tung, who arrived here Tuesday afternoon for an official two-day visit, agreed to establish a financial cooperation channel to cope effectively with possible economic crises.

They also discussed issues on the positions of South Korea and Hong Kong in the new round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization scheduled to be held early next year.

On Wednesday, Tung is expected to meet with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and other political and business leaders, including chiefs of the Bank of Korea and the Korea National Tourism Organization.

It is Tung's first visit to South Korea since he took Hong Kong 's top administrative job in July 1997.

Hong Kong is South Korea's fourth largest trading partner. South Korea exported 7.2 billion US dollars of goods to Hong Kong in the first 10 months of this year while importing 600 million US dollars of commodities from Hong Kong. (Xinhua)