Jeju Island has scaled up its sister relations with the Chinese island province of Hainan, agreeing to cooperate in numerous industries.
A Chinese delegation visited the South Korean island this week to officially strengthen their ties,... and also learn from Jeju's experience in various areas of development.
Oh Soo-young reports.
South Korea's Jeju Island and China's Hainan Island have agreed to strengthen their ties as they mark 23 years of relations as sister provinces.
On Friday, Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong and his counterpart from Hainan, Sheng Xiaoming , signed a four-point memorandum of understanding to boost cooperation and exchanges in a range of areas such as tourism, sports, trade, environment and education.
"Jeju has been seeing great progress as an free international city and we, in Hainan, are building a free trade port. So the key point here that we share in common is liberalization. I believe we must strive together and work toward economic and social development, deepening liberalization."
"There's great significance in this MOU in that we agreed on specific, systematic and continuous ways to deepen meaningful exchanges such as sending delegations to each others' annual forums, main festivals and setting up working-level talks on areas of cooperation in science."
The agreement comes at a significant time, as the Chinese Communist Party this year announced large-scale projects for Hainan, which include building a free trade port by 2035, and boosting key sectors such as agriculture, green energy and tourism.
That's why Hainan officials have come to Jeju to observe its progress over the years in building a free international development city... and Jeju's international port.
The two islands are both situated at the southernmost point of their respective countries,... and are popular holiday spots, boasting beautiful sandy beaches.
They first established sister province relations in 1995 before upgrading their ties in 2015 with an MOU to strengthen friendly cooperation.
With their latest agreement, Jeju and Hainan hope to promote further contact and exchanges -- not just between their governments and businesses. They also aim to establish lasting friendships between their residents for the decades to come through exchanges in culture and sports.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News, Jeju.
