China's economic hub Shanghai and Belgium's port city of Antwerp signed an agreement Tuesday in Shanghai, vowing to strengthen cooperation.

The agreement was reached during Belgian Prince Philippe's visit to Shanghai.

According to the agreement, the future cooperation between the two cities will cover the fields of port construction, education and personnel training.

Prince Philippe brought with him a 500-member delegation to China, consisting of representatives from the financial sector, ports and airports, universities, industrial and service companies and government officials.

In a meeting with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng, Prince Philippe said the rapidly growing Chinese market is of great significance to Belgium which is mainly based on its export oriented economy.

He said Belgian entrepreneurs have shown their strong interest in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

In the first nine months of this year, China-Belgium trade hit 6.6 billion US dollars, up 36 percent year-on-year and was close to the total bilateral trade volume last year.

Prince Philippe came to Beijing Sunday. After his visit to Shanghai, he will also visit south China's Guangdong Province and Anhui Province in east China.