AsiaNet 86769

JINAN, China, Nov. 20, 2020 /Xinhua=KYODO JBN/--

According to the Foreign Affairs Office of Jinan Municipal People's Government,

with approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of P. R. China and the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of R. O. Korea, a flight between

Jinan and Seoul operated by T'way Airlines will be opened from November 20th,

2020 to March 28th, 2021. It is the first regular international airline opened

between Jinan and R. O. Korea since the outbreak of COVID-19, which will

provide new opportunities to further strengthen the mutual beneficial

cooperation between Jinan and all social sides of R. O. Korea and also provide

conveniences for the mutual trade cooperation and personnel exchange between

the two sides.

As a Chinese saying goes, people will pay one hundred pounds of gold to buy a

house but one thousand pounds of gold to choose the neighbour, and the right

neighbor can not be measured by gold. China and Korea are neighbouring each

other and Shandong Province faces Korea across the sea. Jinan, the capital of

Shandong Province, also renowned as the City of Springs, one of the historical

and cultural cities in China, and the golden port for the publicity of

Confucian culture, has been working with the twinning cities and friendship

organizations in Korea to cement the public opinion foundation and advantages

of cooperation, so as to serve and contribute to the overall situation of

opening up and cooperation between the two countries.

Jinan starts the new chapter of cooperation with R. O. Korea since the

establishment of twinning city relationship with Suwon in 1993, and continues

close exchanges and cooperation with Incheon, Daejeon, Pohang, Andong, and

Changwon. By the end of 2019, the companies from R. O. Korea including SK

Group, and LG Group etc. listed in the Fortune 500, have invested 177 projects

in Jinan with a contractual foreign investment of US$737 million, and Jinan

City has newly set up 7 companies in R. O. Korea with a total contractual

investment of approximately US$ 213 million. In 2019, the import and export

volume between Jinan and R. O. Korea has reached 3.24 billion RMB, with a

year-on-year increase of 9.3% in export, and 24% in import.

At present, Jinan is facing and seizing the historical opportunities of the

three national strategies i.e. the strategy of the ecological protection and

high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, the strategy of China

(Shandong) Free Trade Pilot Zone, and that of the National Comprehensive Pilot

Zone for Replacing Old Growth Drivers with New Ones, which will expand a larger

space of cooperation and bring more potential of development.

Sources: The Foreign Affairs Office of Jinan Municipal People's Government

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   Caption: Jinan Aoti Center Gymnasium

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   Caption: Baotu Spring in winter

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   Caption: China (Jinan)-Korea (Suwon) Calligraphy Exchange Exhibition