On April 19, the 17th Local Government Exchange Seminar between China and South Korea under the theme of "strengthening China-South Korea exchanges and deepening sub-national cooperation" opened in Changchun. Choi Hee-deok, Consul-general of Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Shenyang, Wang Zilian, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Changchun Municipal Committee and Mayor of Changchun, Kim Sang-gwang, Director of the China Office of Governors Association of Korea, and Chen Li, Director-general of Department of Foreign Affairs Management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speech.

Wang Zilian, on behalf of the CPC Changchun Municipal Committee and Changchun Municipal People's Government, extended a warm welcome to all the distinguished guests. He said that China and South Korea face each other across the sea and enjoy geographical proximity. With more than 30 years of diplomatic relations, bilateral relationship has achieved development in all aspects with the times. The seminar is held in Changchun for the first time over the recent 15 years. A series of activities including industrial promotion, cultural experience, keynote speech and economic and trade exchanges will be held, which will strongly promote the friendship and cooperation between the two sides and push the China-ROK relations to a new high.

For a long time, Changchun has maintained close exchanges and cooperation with the local governments of the Republic of Korea and has established friendly relationship with six cities in South Korea, including Ulsan, Incheon and Jeonju. The China-ROK (Changchun) International Cooperation Demonstration Zone, established in 2020, is China's only state-level cooperation platform with South Korea in Northeast China. At present, Changchun has gathered nearly 100 Korea-invested enterprises, with a total investment of more than RMB 4.5 billion. The bilateral cooperation has been fully extended to economic, social, cultural and other fields.

Wang Zilian said that Changchun, located in the geographical and geometric center of Northeast Asia, is an important old industrial base, commodity grain base and a famous city of science, education and culture in China. At present, Changchun, deeply implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, is accelerating the carrying out of the "city linkage in six areas" under the guidance of constructing a modern metropolitan area and takes resolute effort in pushing forward the opening-up to a higher level. South Korea is a developed country in Northeast Asia, with the electronics, automobiles, chemical engineering, film and television, cosmetic medicine and other industries leading the world. The government governance, especially the construction of digital government, ranks among the world's first echelon. The two sides enjoy broad cooperation space and huge development potential in industrial development, new technology development, cultural tourism and trade and other aspects. Hopefully, the participants will take this exchange and seminar as an opportunity to further deepen the government affairs exchange, economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. Hopefully, the business people of the ROK will seize the historical opportunities to invest and start business in Changchun to jointly push the China-ROK strategic cooperative partnership to a new level.

Since 2002, the Local Government Exchange Seminar between China and South Korea has been held in many Chinese cities, and it has become a solid platform for economic and trade cooperation and an important bridge for friendly exchanges between local governments of the two countries. This seminar is co-hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in China, Governors Association of Korea, Changchun Municipal People's Government and the Foreign Affairs Office of Jilin Province, co-organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs Management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and undertaken by the Foreign Affairs Office of Changchun Municipal People's Government. More than 360 guests attend the seminar, which are the most among all the seminars in the history.

Before the opening ceremony, Wang Zilian met with important guests who attended the event.