The "2005 Harbin ROK (Republic of Korea) Week" opened in Harbin, capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province, on Monday.

With the theme of "Enhancing Understanding and Friendship and Expanding Exchanges and Cooperation," the week-long event consists of commodity exhibitions,investment promotion events and activities for promoting sports and cultural exchanges between China and the ROK. Delegations from the ROK's political, business and cultural circles, along with about 100 ROK-funded businesses in China, will attend the ROK week.

In the wake of implementing China's strategy of rejuvenating its traditional industrial bases in northeast China, an increasing number of ROK business people have increased investments in Harbin and the entire northeast China as well, said Xia Shaoqiu, deputy secretary-general of the Harbin City People's Government.

Statistics show that China has become the largest trade partner of the ROK and the trade volume between the two countries topped more than 90 billion US dollars last year. ROK's investment in China have soared to 26 billion US dollars.

Currently, more than 30,000 ROK firms have settled in China, 163 of which have investments in Harbin.

The 2005 Harbin ROK Week will be sponsored jointly by the Harbin city government and the ROK General Consulate in Shenyang,capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Source: Xinhua