On October 26, the opening ceremony of the 7th China-Japan-Korea Industry Expo and the 2021 China-Japan-Korea Industry Cooperation and Development Forum were held via video in Weifang city, Shandong province.Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations and chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, former Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, Vice Governor of Shandong Province Ji Binchang, member and vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Lu Pengqi, deputy secretary of the Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Liu Yun addressed the ceremony.Kong Xuanyou, Chinese Ambassador to Japan, and Xing Haiming, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, attended the forum and delivered speeches.Zhao Zhongxiu, president of Shandong University of Finance and Economics and the dean of the China-Japan-Korea Research Institute, was invited to attend and gave a keynote speech entitled “Building a Multi-Dimensional Cooperative Investment Attraction System and Improving the Quality of Foreign Capital Utilization in Japan and South Korea”.

In his speech, Zhao Zhongxiu systematically sorted out the basic situation of Shandong Province’s use of foreign capital from Japan and South Korea.He pointed out that in recent years, the amount of investment from Japan and South Korea in various provinces and cities has shown a shrinking trend, and the hot spots of using foreign investment from Japan and South Korea in Shandong Province have initially shown the characteristics of industrial agglomeration and the transfer of new investment industries.Zhao Zhongxiu considered the long-term macro impact caused by the relationship issues with Japan and South Korea, the short-term systemic impact caused by the Sino-US trade friction and the impact of the new crown epidemic, the location impact caused by external markets such as ASEAN, which has a comparative advantage, and the internal factors caused by the local business environment, the policy impact caused by the innovation and differentiation of investment policies among different provinces and cities, etc. and analyzed the main reasons for the fluctuations in the use of foreign capital from Japan and South Korea in Shandong Province.He proposed that Shandong Province should comprehensively deepen exchanges and cooperation with Japan and South Korea, and actively explore new paths for comprehensive cooperation with Japan and South Korea by establishing a five-dimensional cooperative investment system from the dimensions of opening and reform coordination, strategy and platform coordination, industry and enterprise coordination, pre- and post-event coordination, FTA and FTZ coordination, etc.innovatively promote the economic and trade cooperation system and mechanism of China, Japan and South Korea, improve the quality of foreign capital utilization by Japan and South Korea, serve the construction of new heights of opening up to build Shandong Province into a bridgehead for the integrated development of Northeast Asia.

This China-Japan-Korea Industrial Cooperation and Development Forum is co-sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the People’s Government of Shandong Province, the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade, the Korea Trade Association, and the China-Japan-Korea Cooperation Secretariat.Relevant leaders, experts, and business leaders of China, Japan and South Korea made speeches and exchanges on creating an open and inclusive cooperation environment, promoting industrial cooperation in the three countries, and advancing the process of RCEP and China, Japan and South Korea FTA regional cooperation.2,104 companies (units) and 34 representative offices of Japanese and Korean local governments in China participated in the online exhibition.