YANTAI, China, Dec. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The tides of change are crashing in the coastal Chinese city of Yantai - but in a good way. On November 27th, 2019, it was announced that a new China-South Korea Industrial Park and Free Trade Zone will be established in the Shandong metropolitan. A foreign media tour will follow its establishment. "The opportunity of expanding cooperation between Yantai and South Korea has come," were the words of Yu Yongxin, member of the Standing Committee of the Yantai Municipal Party Committee, in the initial address to announce the initiative.

Being the closest free trade area to South Korea, the initiative aims to achieve greater opportunities for South Korean companies to develop enterprises in the coastal city, and strengthen an already existing and extensive relationship. The Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone is a national-level platform that will complement the "Belt and Road" and aims to make the process of approval and registering foreign-owned enterprises more efficiently, and in effect, attract investment from both South Korea and Japan. Also, it is hoped that the new free trade zone will lead an upsurge of innovation and development, leading Yantai into a new chapter of growth. With 18 South Korean-funded Fortune 500 projects already operating in the district, and a Korean-style pedestrian street, the city of Yantai is making clear that it's doors are open and  ready to do business with its regional neighbors.

Roughly 30,000 South Koreans already live in Yantai, and with South Korea being the coastal city's largest trading partner and largest source of investment, this is the next step to strengthen their economic relationship. The partnership will also include Japan as it is the city's third largest trading partner and source of foreign investment. The State Council aims that over the next 2-3 years that the China-Japan-South Korea regional cooperation will make Yantai more competitive, bring in further investment, and aims to promote open cooperation between the city and it's two regional neighbors.

Yantai is a prefecture-level city in northeast Shandong Province, China, with just under seven million people. The coastal city was one of the earliest Chinese cities to have an approved state-level economic development zone, called the Yantai Economic and Technological Development Area, and is one of the largest trading ports and fishing seaports in the nation, thus has enjoyed significant economic prosperity. While agriculture remains the dominant economic force in the city - China's oldest winery, Changyu, is based on the outskirts of of Yantai - the goverment has been making a significant push to develop new industries and add some new wind to the city's sails.

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SOURCE Information Office of the People's Government of Shandong Province