The city of Weihai in Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to expand economic and trade ties with South Korea, said local officials.

The China-Republic of Korea (ROK) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed in June 2015. Incheon and Weihai have been selected as local economic cooperation demonstration zones for the FTA, and Weihai has become a hub for bilateral communication and the promotion of economic and trade development between the two countries.

The city has launched a series of measures and supportive policies to boost the development of the China-ROK FTA local economic cooperation demonstration zone and seek closer ties with South Korea in trade, investment, services and industrial cooperation.

Weihai, Shandong province [Photo/WeChat account: weihaifabu]

In March 2019, Weihai and Incheon signed a cooperation agreement to promote interactive development of Weihai Port, Weihai Airport, Incheon Port and Incheon Airport as well as build a multimodal transport logistics system combining land, sea and air transport.

An industrial park was launched in the Weihai China-ROK local economic cooperation demonstration zone on Sept 15 this year. Four strategic cooperation agreements and 14 industrial projects were signed at the launch ceremony, with a total investment of 8.92 billion yuan ($1.34 billion).

Located in the Weihai Economic and Technological Development Zone, the park, with a planned area of 24 square kilometers, is designed to facilitate collaboration in logistics, trade, investment and cross-border e-commerce.

Weihai is the nearest city in China to South Korea. It is the hub connecting Japan and ROK in the east and a gateway to central Asia and Europe in the west.

The city has nine sea routes from Weihai Port to South Korea as well as 44 flights per week to South Korea.

In 2019, the trade volume between Weihai and South Korea reached 43.55 billion yuan, accounting for 22.3 percent of the province's trade volume with the country.

There are more than 800 Korean-invested enterprises in Weihai, accounting for 60 percent of foreign-invested enterprises in the city.

Last year, the city received $170 million investment from ROK, accounting for 45.8 percent of the total in the province.