The Fifth Northeast Asia Regional Governments Conference opened Tuesday in Harbin, capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province.

The conference attracted 112 officials from 27 local governments in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Japan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, Russia and China. They will discuss major issues concerning cooperation among countries in northeast Asia and matters on the association's development.

Li Hui, assistant to minister of Foreign Affairs of China, saidChina has attached great importance to enhancing good-neighbourly relationship with other northeast Asian countries.

China has strengthened its strategic partnership with Russia, built an all-round partnership and a good-neighbourly and mutual-trust relationship respectively with the ROK and Mongolia, deepened its traditional friendship with the DPRK and will build afriendly cooperation partnership devoting to peace and developmentwith Japan, he said.

The Chinese government supports exchanges and cooperation amongall countries in northeast Asia and will do its bit in promoting regional development and prosperity, he added.

Since the Association of Northeast Asia Regional Governments was founded in 1996, it has held four meetings to promote cooperation of local governments in the region.

Source: Xinhua