By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee 

Seongnam City announced on April 1 that a seven-member delegation from Huizhou, China, led by Party Secretary Yu Gil, visited the city to strengthen cooperation in friendly city exchanges.
 

Seongnam City Mayor Shin Sang-jin held a meeting with Yu Gil, Party Secretary of Huizhou Municipal Committee, at the city hall, and discussed ways to revitalize exchanges between the two cities.

The Huizhou delegation showed interest in Seongnam's Pangyo Techno Valley and discussed future industries such as information and communication technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), and nanotechnology (NT) with innovative business environments and advanced technologies.

They also decided to continue mutual development by activating exchanges in the fields of economy, culture, and education.

"This meeting will be an important milestone in the process of our two cities striving for common interests and development," said Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin.

After the meeting, the Huizhou delegation visited Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency and Pangyo Techno Valley.

The head of the Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency gave an overview of the current status of Pangyo Techno Valley (1,622 companies and 75,751 employees). They also visited NCsoft, a global gaming company.

"Seongnam City, home to Pangyo Techno Valley, is the center of Korea's high-tech industry," said Yu Gil, head of the delegation from Huizhou City, and “we will take it as an example and find ways to apply it to Huizhou's high-tech industry."

Huizhou City signed a friendship agreement with Seongnam City in May 2016. It is located in the center of Guangdong Province, China. It covers a total area of 10,922 square kilometers and has a population of 6.04 million. 

The city is home to a number of global conglomerates, including LG, SK, TCL, Sonny, Asahi, and Coca-Cola, as well as the Korea-China Industrial Park, which was established under the 2015 Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA).