Weihai, a city in east China's Shandong Province, plans to take full advantage of the opportunities for trade in northeast Asia, a top local official said here Thursday.

"With the increasingly rapid progress of the economic globalization, it has become an intrinsic requirement and inevitable trend to strengthen regional economic exchanges and cooperation," said Ma Shihe, vice mayor of the Weihai municipal people's government, at a press conference held for the 2004 Northeast Asia Economic Summit to open here Friday.

As one of the most vigorously developing regions in the world economy, northeast Asia, including Japan, Republic of Korea and China, accounts for a fifth of the total global GDP (gross domestic product) and more than 70 percent of the Asian GDP.

"However, the economic cooperation among northeast Asian countries remains in the initial phase," Ma said.

Northeast Asia countries, different in economic development andresources structure, have complementing economies, which results in a great potential for regional economic cooperation, Ma said.

"Against this backdrop, it is in the common interests of all countries in the region to establish a non-official, high-level, open and influential platform for economic cooperation and exchange, in order to promote common development and prosperity," he said.

Shandong Province is one of China's economic powers that neighbors other northeast Asian countries. Weihai serves as a bridgehead for Shandong and China at large, enhancing the regional economic cooperation, Ma said.

Statistics show that the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan have become Weihai's largest trade partners, according to Wang Baohua, director of the Weihai Municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Bureau.

In the first eight months of this year, Weihai's foreign trade volume with ROK reached 1.67 billion US dollars, accounting for 48.8 percent of the total, up 38.5 percent year-on-year.

While during the same period, the Weihai-Japan trade volume reported 450 million US dollars, accounting for 13.1 of the total, up 18 percent year-on-year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2004)