The Republic of Korea (ROK) plans to increase its investment in China to more than 100 billion US dollars in two to three years and become the biggest overseas investor in China, a senior ROK official has said in Wuhan.

While continuing its investment in east China, the ROK government would explore business opportunities in west China, said Kim Ha-joong, ROK ambassador to China, at the just-concluded China Hubei ROK Friendship Week held in Wuhan from May 12 through 18.

He said that China's policies to boost economic development in its central and western areas were sure to create more business opportunities for ROK enterprises.

ROK investment in Wuhan, a major city and a transportation hub in central China, has risen markedly recently.

By the end of April, Wuhan had approved 39 ROK-financed enterprises in the fields of automobiles and parts, transportation, new building materials and chemistry. Involved contractual ROK investment totaled 66 million US dollars.

Trade between Wuhan and the ROK reached 104 million US dollars in 2003.

Exchange between China and the ROK in various fields has been expanding in recent years. Each year, over 2 million people from the ROK, or one-twentieth of the country's total population, come to China for sight-seeing, business and study, and there are more than 200,000 ROK people living and working in China.

To promote economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, the ROK embassy will choose two to three Chinese provinces each year as the venues for holding the ROK friendship week, the diplomat said.

Trade between China and the ROK topped 63 billion US dollars last year, only 500 million US dollars less than that between China and Japan, currently the largest investor in China.