Provinces of S. Korea, China vow to strengthen friendship, exchanges

HONGSEONG, South Korea, April 22 (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea's South Chungcheong Province and China's Guizhou Province agreed Friday to strengthen their cooperation in the sectors of economy, tourism, culture, sports and agriculture.

South Chungcheong Gov. Ahn Hee-jung and Chen Miner, the party chief of China's southwestern province, adopted a joint statement on the agreement after holding talks at the provincial government building in Hongseong, 157 kilometers south of Seoul.

Chen, known to be close to Chinese President Xi Jinping, has been in South Korea since Tuesday on a five-day visit to meet with senior South Korean government officials and attend cultural events.

During the talks, Ahn and Chen took notes on the need to jointly develop tourism products and increase economic exchanges to achieve mutual prosperity. In order to implement the project, the two regional governments agreed to hold regular familiarization tours and tourism presentations aimed at finding hidden tourist attractions in the two regions.

Other projects to be pursued by the provinces of the two neighboring countries include the idea of a joint platform being installed to promote the "big data" industry. The Chinese province has planned China's first big data pilot zone as part of efforts to attract a huge amount of talent from home and abroad to the cutting-edge industry.

At Friday's talks, the South Korean governor hoped that with Chen's visit here "South Chungcheong and Guizhou will accelerate their relations to exemplify South Korea-China exchanges."

Chen replied the Chinese province will implement eight of the nine projects related to human relations with the South Korean province, stressing the importance of cooperating between regional governments to further Seoul-Beijing relations.

Prior to the adoption of the joint statement, the two leaders attended a photo exhibition on Guizhou planted a zelkova tree on the premises of the regional government building to commemorate the Chinese leader's visit.

namsh@yna.co.kr
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