The Republic of Korea will hold various activities early next month in central China's Henan Province in an effort to promote economic and cultural cooperation.

Activities during the Friendship Week slated for Nov. 3 to 7 in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, will include investment and trade fairs, photo exhibitions, movie shows and artistic performances, said officials from the co-sponsors of Henan provincial government and ROK Embassy in China at a joint press conference here Monday.

Seeing great potential for joint economic and trade development, the Republic of Korea has held similar friendship weeks in China's Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan provinces and Chongqing Municipality since 2003, when the two countries reached a consensus on building stronger partnership.

Statistics from the Republic of Korea showed that bilateral trade hit 90 billion US dollars in 2004, a year-on-year increase of 42.4 percent, which made China its largest foreign trade partner.

Personnel exchange between the two countries reached 3.5 million people in 2004 and the number of ROK visitors to China was the largest among other nations, according to the embassy.

Seok Tong-youn, deputy chief of mission with the embassy, said at a press conference on Monday that the Republic of Korea should expand its cooperation with China's local authorities since every region has its own traits and circumstances.

Cao Guoying, vice secretary-general of Henan provincial government, said that a friendly and cooperative relationship has been established since 1995 between a number of Henan and ROK cities.

The provincial government is planning to open a flight between Zhengzhou and Seoul in order to facilitate mutual trade and tourist exchanges, Cao said.

Source: Xinhua