The first Sino-Korean (Shaanxi) Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Industry and Trade Forum was opened on Wednesday afternoon in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

The forum is hosted by the Small and Medium-Sized Business Department of the Republic of Korea and sponsored by Shaanxi Commercial Department and several Korean and Chinese organizations in Shaanxi. Participants discussed the prospects of cooperation between the ROK and China in the environmental protection industry and exchanged information on the environmental situation and technology.

Thirty-seven ROK businesses and 120 Chinese companies in Shaanxi talked about the cooperation in the forum in the fields of air pollution control, water treatment, waste disposal, automobile emissions equipment, air purifiers, car air purifiers, water purifiers, food processors and humidifiers.

Wang Lixia, deputy governor of Shaanxi, said at the forum that the ROK was Shaanxi's fifth-largest foreign trade partner and second-largest investor.

“By the end of September, the ROK had invested in 212 projects in Shaanxi with the total investment of $2.26 billion. It had invested in three out of every 10 new investment projects in the province,” the deputy governor said.

Most of those projects were established in the city's hi-tech development zone, one of the top-six such zones in China. It is estimated that more than 5,000 Koreans work and live in the city, and their number could reach 10,000 within three years as a result of the rapid development of the cooperation between the ROK and Shaanxi.