The coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province, held an investment symposium for enterprises in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, on Dec 11th, where large numbers of government officials and enterprise executives of both parties took part.

Addressing the symposium were Liu Mingjun, deputy mayor of Qingdao, Jing Chunhai, economic counselor at China's embassy in Japan, and Okamoto Lwao, president of the Japan-China Economic Association.

The Qingdao's Bureau of Commerce made keynote speeches named "the new strategy of Qingdao's urban development and new opportunity of cooperation with Japanese enterprises".

Liu said that Qingdao has established partnerships with a string of Japanese cities, such as Shimonoseki, Fukuoka, Kyoto, Kitakyushu and Kawasaki. He said he hopes that the Japanese enterprises will make full use of their advantages in technology, capital, personnel and management to take part in the development of Qingdao. Liu added that Qingdao will optimize its investment environment and protect the Japanese enterprises' legitimate rights and interests in China.

Jing reinforced this by saying that Qingdao has been advocating the establishment of a pilot city concerning local economic cooperation among China, Japan and South Korea, and hopes the investment symposium will gain more fruitful results.

Okamoto Lwao gave a picture of the positive efforts aiming to facilitate the investment and trade cooperation between Japan and Shandong province, especially Qingdao. He said he hopes Japanese enterprises can work together to tap more cooperation opportunities with Qingdao, which enjoys advantages in industries and professionals.

The Qingdao delegation had a chance to tour around the economic and commercial counselor's office at China's embassy in Japan on Dec 10th. Liu Yajun, minister of the embassy, said that the two governments should boost non-governmental exchanges among the people and enterprises of both parties in a bid to propel their economic cooperation, which is the key to maintaining a healthy, steady and continuous development of China-Japan relations.