A "S Korea Friendship Week" will be held in north China's port city of Tianjin from July 8 to 12 in a bid to strengthen the economic and cultural links between China and South Korea.

Some 150 South Korean businesses will attend the event, which will include South Korean movie shows and photo exhibitions of South Korean sightseeing spots, said Zhang Junyi, a spokesman for the Tianjin municipal government, at a press conference on Monday.

Local government statistics show that Tianjin received 178,000 South Korean visitors last year, accounting for more than 20 percent of the city's total overseas visitors.

By the end of March this year, more than 2,600 South Korean businesses had invested a total of US$2.9 billion in Tianjin, ranking the fourth of all the overseas-funded businesses in Tianjin.

"I believe the event will serve as a new platform for the two sides to cooperate," Whang Joung II, minister of the South Korean embassy, said.

The "South Korean Friendship Week" will move to Shandong's provincial capital of Jinan after the Tianjin event is over.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2007)