Governor of Chungnam Province, Mr. Hee-Jung An Made a Tour of China and Promoted Exchanges with It

Governor An chose China as the destination of his first tour as Governor of Chungnam from October 1 to 5, 2010, recognizing its increasing economic influence such as its entry into the G2 Community. On his tour, he had close discussions with various Chinese local governments on the subjects of an explanatory meeting for attracting investments into Chungnam, the Agreement on Further Exchanges and Cooperations with Hebei Province, Agreement on Friendly Exchanges and Cooperations with Liaoning Province, and creating new routes connecting Chungnam’s Dangjin Port to China’s Yingkou and Dalian Port.

An Explanatory Meeting for Attracting Investments into Chungnam was Held in Beijing

On his first day in China on October 1, Governor An had a meeting with Mr. Woo-Ik Ryu, the Chinese ambassador in Beijing and exchanged a broad scope of opinions on exchanges between Korean and Chinese local governments with him. Governor An said, “It is imperative for Korea to improve its relationships with China for the sake of peace and growth of Northeast Asia. For that, local governments are required to play roles as important as those of the central governments.”  

 

 

In the afternoon, an explanatory meeting for attracting investments into Chungnam was held with ten participants including chairs and CEOs of prestigious Chinese real estate and tourism developers. At the meeting, Governor An personally made a presentation about the development of Anmyeon Tourist Destination, Boryeong Mud Land, the New Town of Chungnam, and Yellow Sea Free Economic Zone, encouraging the input of Chinese capital into Chungnam. The explanatory meeting was different from its predecessors, which were large-scale, and only invited those who were interested in investment into Chungnam, thus attracting huge interest from the participants.

Governor Signed Agreement on Further Exchanges and Cooperations with Hebei Province

 

On the second day of his tour on October 2, Governor An visited Hebei Province, which is part of its sister-province affiliation and exchanged broad opinions on further exchanges between the two provinces with Mr. Chen Quanguo, Governor of Hebei Province. Pointing out that Hebei Province, which has been rapidly shifting from a traditional agricultural province toward the center of economic growth, has many similarities with Chungnam Province, Governor An discussed various issues with agriculture, agricultural areas, and farmers including the dropping of agricultural productivity and the widening gap in income between urban and rural areas, and proposed an array of ideas to solve the issues including expanding joint research and exchanges between the two provinces, increasing private exchanges such as craftsmen's associations, and establishing and running mutual exhibition and marketing centers.  

In response to his ideas, Governor Chen Quanguo said they should make joint efforts to expand exchanges between the two provinces over a wide range of fields including economy, education, culture, and tourism and to help Governor An’s suggestions bear fruit one by one.
Governor An and Governor Chen Quanguo concluded an Agreement on Further Exchanges and Cooperations for a broad scope of exchanges between the two provinces and promised to further solidify their friendship as sister provinces. The two provinces made a Sisterhood Agreement in October, 1994 and have engaged in exchanges in a range of fields including administration, economy, youth, and tourism.

Governor Signed Agreement on Friendly Exchanges and Cooperations with Liaoning Province
On the third day of his tour on October 3, Governor An visited Liaoning Province, the biggest economic region of the three northeastern provinces of China and exchanged opinions on growth and plans to increase exchanges and cooperations between the two provinces with Mr. Chen Zhenggao, Governor of Liaoning Province. He suggested that Liaoning Province should appoint Chungnam’s Dangjin Port and Liaoning’s Yingkou Port as the base ports for the transportation of Mongolia’s mineral resources by opening a new direct route between them and established official exchange relationships with Liaoning Province by signing an Agreement on Friendly Exchanges and Cooperations between the two provinces.

Chungnam Suggested the Opening of a Direct Route between Dangjin Port and Yingkou Port

On the fourth day of his tour on October 4, Governor An visited the Hunnan Economic and Technological Development Zone of Liaoning Province, Neusoft Group, and Yingkou Port and had a talk with Mr. Kao Chun, Mayor of Yingkou at dinner.
Invited to the dinner and talk held by Mr. Kao Chun, Governor An said, “If Dangjin-gun and Yingkou City become friends just like Chungnam and Liaoning, they will surely make great partners for mutual survival and cooperation.” He also asked him to make a visit to Chungnam at a time convenient to him.
A source from Chungnam Provincial Office commented, “There will be ongoing concrete discussions on exchanges and cooperations with Liaoning Province and Yingkou City.”

Governor Hee-Jung An of Chungnam had an Interview with China's Xinhua News Agency
The Governor of Chungnam in Korea Spoke on the Urgency of Expanding Cooperation with China
Taking a tour of China, Governor Mr. Hee-Jung An of Chungnam of Korea had an interview with Xinhua News Agency. In the interview, he said that Chungnam maintains relationships of the closest friendly exchanges and the most active trade with China and that expanding trade and cooperation between Chungnam and China even further is of the utmost urgency.
Interpretation: Governor An commented that China was Korea's largest trading country as well as Chungnam, and that Chungnam's trade with China amounted to 17.3 billion dollars and its trade surplus reached 13.5 billion dollars in 2009.
He also added, “China achieved marvelous economic growth in the world in the 1990s. As a country of heritage and potential, China has missions and roles to attend to for the order of Asia and the world. Some argue that China will be a threat to Korea for its economic growth, but I beg to differ from them. In fact, I believe that China's growth will create many more opportunities for Korea. My plan for my visit to Beijing is to actively recommend Chungnam as a wonderful destination with great investment environments to Chinese investors. Chungnam will indeed provide Chinese investors with great investment opportunities with its plan to build a global tourist city on Anmyeon Island and along the West Coast.”
Interpretation: Governor An said he chose China as the first country of his international tour after the inauguration and would work hard on the tour to reinforce Chungnam's cooperation with various local governments of China and promote cooperation between them in a wide range of fields including culture, sports, prevention of damages to agricultural products by blight and harmful insects, environment, and ecology.
[Xinhua News Agency, NEWS TODAY Nov. 02, 2010_reported by Ju Ben-jun from Seoul]

 

Exhibition and Business Talk of Chungnam Products a Huge Success in Chengdu, China
Field sales reached 53,000 dollars
There were 389 buyers and 300,000 visitors

Exhibition and Business Talk of Superior Chungnam Products was held in Chengdu, China October 22~25, 2010. It was a huge success with massive participants including the officials of Sichuan Province, local entrepreneurs, and Chinese buyers from all over the country interested in Korean products.
There were 389 buyers and about 300,000 visitors at the event, where Chungnam promoted its tourism, ginseng, opportunities for investment, and Baekje culture in multiple approaches. One of the buyers at the event said, “I find the superior quality and reasonable prices of the products of the Chungnam companies at the event attractive. I am planning to get samples from them, do market testing, and import their products sooner or later.”
At the opening ceremony, the video clips of Korean Wave stars, who have enjoyed huge popularity in China, were played and received huge reactions from the buyers and visitors along with the photo zone with the stars.

Opening a Passenger Route between Daesan Port of Seosan and Longyan Port of China

A regular route for international passenger ships will be opened between Daesan Port of Seosan, Chungnam and Longyan Port of Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, China in 2012.
At the 18th Korea-China Marine Transportation Meeting held in Seoguipo City, Jeju Island on November 25, 2010, Seosan City of Chungnam and the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs agreed to open a regular route for international passenger ships between Daesan Port and Longyan Port of China. The route will be the shortest one (339km) between Korea and China.
Seosan City plans to build concerned facilities including an international passenger terminal at Daesan Port and run a clipper ship with the capacity of 500~700 passengers between Daesan Port and Longyan Port at 70km/h six times per week from 2012. The route will thus take only five hours.
Mr. Sang-gon Yu, Mayor of Seosan said, “The clipper ship, which travels between Korea and China in only five hours, will attract a large number of Korean and Chinese tourists who used to use airline services along with a massive amount of air freight.”