HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― China aims to strike a free trade deal with South Korea within two years, the country’s top state planner said Monday, stressing it will spur the pace of economic integration in Northeast Asia.

Earlier this month, the two neighboring countries announced the start of free trade negotiations, setting in motion a process to tear down trade barriers between two of Asia’s biggest economies.

The first round of talks on a bilateral free trade agreement will take place later this month.

“At present, China and South Korea are going through economic transformations and upgrading to a higher stage of development,” China’s National Development and Reform Commission said.

“An FTA between the two will not only further inject vitality into the East Asian economies, but also will become an important driver in promoting the long-term goal of economic cooperation in the East Asian region.”

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is visiting Beijing for annual summit talks with Chinese and Japanese leaders, also said earlier that South Korea and China can conclude bilateral free trade negotiations in two years.

“Should an agreement be reached on sensitive issues, I believe it won’t be difficult for the two countries to forge an FTA within two years,” Lee said in an interview with China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV.

With a gross domestic product of $7.3 trillion, China is the world’s second-largest economy and South Korea’s top trading partner. Two-way trade reached $220.6 billion in 2011, far exceeding $100.8 billion for the United States and $103.1 billion for the EU.

The South Korean government expects that an FTA deal with China could help the national economy grow by 0.95-1.25 percent five years after it goes into effect, with numbers going up 2.28-3.04 percent in 10 years.

The possible FTA with China, however, raised concerns that South Korea’s farm and fishery sectors could take the brunt of free trade with China, with cheap Chinese products flooding local markets.

Agriculture and fisheries are considered to be the most sensitive sectors of the South Korean economy, while China categorizes its manufacturing industries, which include the automobile, machinery, and oil and chemical sectors, as its most sensitive.