Demonstration zone highlights Sino-ROK business ties
An exhibition hall for cities in China and the Republic of Korea opened in Changchun, Jilin province, on Thursday, marking a breakthrough in the development of the newly established Sino-ROK International Cooperation Demonstration Zone in the city.
The hall is a landmark at the SinoROK demonstration zone, which is designed as a showcase of the industries, technologies, commodities, services and cultures of both countries.
It is a facility combining both offline and online functions, offering visitors an all-new experience through physical exhibitions and cross-border e-commerce.
For the business community, the hall has great significance as it is a permanent venue for exhibition. In addition, the annual Sino-ROK Expo and a number of forums will be held at the hall, offering entrepreneurs opportunities to identify partners.
The hall will serve as a major venue for exchanges at the Sino-ROK International Cooperation Demonstration Zone.
The demonstration zone was officially launched in June 29, 2020. The plan for the zone, which was proposed by the Jilin provincial government, was approved by the State Council on April 27, 2020.
The planned area of the zone is 512 square kilometers, including a 210sq-km core area and a 302-sq-km extension.
The demonstration zone also includes a number of industrial parks specializing in the fields of new energy vehicles, intelligent-connected vehicles information technology, equipment manufacturing, medicine and medical equipment, health food, and movie and cartoon production, as well as airport and land port logistics.
The development plan for the zone says that there is a great potential for cooperation between the business communities of China and the ROK.
Changchun enjoys partnerships with six cities in the ROK, including Ulsan, Incheon and Jeonju.
Building on such friendly ties, the plan says the zone will target three areas for cooperation.
One area will focus on industrial collaboration in the fields of digital technologies, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, health food, optics and electronics. In this first area, the demonstration zone aims to attract the ROK’s technological, human and market resources to boost its growth.
The second area for cooperation is to offer various trading platforms to help Chinese and ROK businesses expand globally. For instance, the China-Europe freight train service that links Changchun and a number of European cities can be extended for ROK companies, offering them a shortcut for trade in commodities.
The third area is to enhance people-to-people exchanges in the fields of science, technology, education, culture and tourism.
Local authorities believe there are many advantages to helping the demonstration zone grow.
Li Weibin, chief of the demonstration zone, said the zone’s development is not only limited to cooperation between China and the ROK. It highlights multilateral collaborations with the neighboring countries of Russia, Japan, Mongolia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The multilateral cooperation mechanism of the zone is made possible by its geographical location as a hub of Northeast Asia,” Li said. “Companies in countries like the ROK and Japan can make better use of Changchun as a hub of the northern route of the China-Europe freight train service for their exports to Central and Western Asia and Europe. This route represents a substantial decrease in travel time compared with the traditional maritime routes.”
In addition, Li said the zone can take advantage of various resources in Jilin and its neighboring regions.
“Such resources include land and agricultural resources in Jilin province, and forestry and mineral resources in Russia, as well as technological resources in the ROK and Japan,” Li said.
The official also mentioned cultural links. “Jilin province has China’s largest population of Korean ethnic people, who share the same language and similar culture with those who live on the Korean Peninsula,” Li said. “Such an advantage in language and culture can eventually turn into an advantage in economic exchanges and business cooperation.
Chen Yunwu, deputy chief of the Jilin Reform and Development Commission, said the Changchun demonstration zone will have various industrial parks to meet the demands for collaborative development in specific industries.
For this purpose, the zone will have establishments focusing on seven sectors including: IT; advanced and intelligent manufacturing; medicine and healthcare; agriculture; culture and tourism; and educational and scientific cooperation.
To win cutthroat competition in drawing investors among a great number of industrial zones and parks nationwide, the demonstration zone in Changchun has made great efforts to improve its business environment according to international standards.
It has launched reforms in administrative service, featuring delegating approval powers and simplifying business registration procedures, according to a local official.
The official said the zone is positioned to be a new engine to drive Jilin’s growth by introducing advantageous international resources to strategic sectors including advanced equipment manufacturing, hydrogen energy, optics and information.
According to Li, the demonstration zone has achieved much development over the year since its establishment. On the day of its founding, the construction of 12 large investment projects with funding totaling 30 billion yuan ($4.64 billion) began at the zone, he said.
By the end of August, a total of 64 projects with investments totaling 58.5 billion yuan are under construction. Another 21 projects with a combined investment of 18.8 billion yuan are planned to start construction by the end of this year.