NETDA attends forum to boost ties with Japan, South Korea

Suzhou city in China's East Jiangsu province held the first Taihu East Asian Entrepreneurs Forum on May 17 – deepening its economic and trade cooperation with Japan and South Korea, local media reported.

The forum also set up a sub-venue to further promote the event's profile. The forum attracted more than 150 participants, including representatives of Japanese and South Korean companies, as well as officials from the district's commerce and trade departments.

Representatives from businesses based in the Nantong Economic & Technological Development Area, or NETDA – located in Nantong city in Jiangsu province – also attended the forum.

Jiangsu and the East Asia region are geographically adjacent and are in an ideal position to conduct trade. Nantong boasts a long history of commerce and other ties with Japan and South Korea. There are 267 Japanese-Korean enterprises, with a total investment of about $15 billion that have based their operations in the area.

The number of enterprises backed by Japan and South Korea account for one third of the foreign-funded enterprises in the city and companies have invested an average of $50 million – 1.6 times the average investment amount of foreign-funded businesses in the region.

Earlier this year, the NETDA was included in the first group of China, Japan and Korea (Jiangsu) Industrial Cooperation Demonstration Parks in Jiangsu.