On Tuesday, October 28, NEAR Secretary-General Lim Byung-jin met in Seoul with Zhang Qixiang, Vice Governor of Heilongjiang Province, who was visiting Korea to attend the third Korea-China Governors Forum. The two side, exchanged views on ways to further strengthen mutual cooperation.
Secretary-General Lim welcomed the visit of the Heilongjiang delegation and provided an overview of NEAR's current status, recent major activities, and key events scheduled for the coming year. He expressed high appreciation for Heilongjiang Province’s pivotal role as a founding member in the establishment of NEAR and its Secretariat. He also emphasized that the NEAR Secretariat attaches great importance to cooperation with Heilongjiang Province, a founding and former chair member government, and expressed hope for the development of practical cooperative projects to further expand substantive collaboration in the future.
Vice Governor Zhang remarked that the meeting was particularly meaningful as it took place ahead of the APEC Summit and the thirtieth anniversary of NEAR’s establishment. He expresses his appreciation for NEAR’s important role in promoting cooperation and development across the Northeast Asian region.
He noted that Heilongjiang Province possesses notable strengths and competitiveness in areas such as modern agriculture, ice and snow tourism, and logistics with Russia, and conveyed his hope to pursue broader and deeper economic cooperation with NEAR. He also proposed strengthening exchanges in various fields, including culture, education, the humanities, and sports.
The meeting was attended by four representatives from Heilongjiang Province — Yang Hongpeng, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office; Feng Weiquan, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Education; Wang Bing, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Industry and Information Technology; and Liu Yiting, Division Director of the Foreign Affairs Office. From the NEAR Secretariat, Choi Ju-hwa, Director of the International Cooperation Department, was also in attendance.