Now, it has become a large exporter with annual sales of over US$500 million.

"TriGem has been a successful business in China thanks to the support of the Chinese government," said Seung-Kap Lee, vice-president of the company.

Like TriGem, more ROK companies have entered the China market choosing areas around the Bohai Sea. In Weihai city of Shangdong Province, more than 800 ROK companies hired 30 percent of the city's labor population, paying about one third of the province's total tax take.

Northeast China, as Chinese Minister of Commerce Lu Fuyuan expected, will attract more foreign investors ahead of the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Economic Ministers' Meeting next week.

His remarks coincide with the views of ROK president Roh Moo-hyun, who said the ROK and China had great potential for economic cooperation.

China's customs statistics show that China-ROK bilateral trade volume increased by almost 800 percent over the past ten years. In the first half of this year, growth of China-ROK bilateral trade surpassed 40 percent.

As China drew more attention from global investors, well-known ROK companies like LG and Samsung also saw business opportunities brought by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Last year, ROK's investment to China was US$2.72 billion, an increase of 26.4 percent over the previous year. As a result, China for the first time became the largest investment target of the ROK.

China and the ROK have began to solve problems, such as the trade deficit, to further expand economic cooperation. A joint statement signed during Roh Moo-hyun's China visit said the two sides agreed to adopt active measures to boost bilateral trade, and improve the current trade imbalance.

This year TriGem plans to enlarge its Shenyang branch into an IT product manufacturing and sales center.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2003)