The Second Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Fair.	New locomotive built by the China Changchun Passenger Train Co., Ltd. exhibited at the fair.

Having attended the Second Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Fair in Changchun, provincial capital of Jilin, Zhejiang merchant Dong Miaomiao noted that the locals “are well able to promote themselves.” Well that, it seems, was their plan. Attending the event were 70-odd Fortune 500 companies, prompting leaders of Jilin's various cities and prefectures to take the opportunity to visit those companies' representatives to introduce a wealth of current investment opportunities.

One of the most enthusiastic was governor of Jilin Province Wang Min. During a meeting with six CEOs, he invited them to cooperate in the development of the local traditional Chinese medicine industry. Wang told them, “Jilin Province is rich in medicinal herbs like ginseng, and is widely known as China's ‘northern medicinal base.'” He urged them to investigate the province further, and play a part in contributing to world health. Businesspeople from Northeast China's neighboring nations like Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia and Japan, were also targeted by this eloquent band of promoters.

Northeast Asia is currently one of the world's most promising development zones. Japan is a developed, industrialized nation, and South Korea is not far behind it. Meanwhile, North Korea, Mongolia and the far eastern region of Russia are relatively backward in terms of economic development, but they are rich in natural resources.

In the early 1990s, a wave of regional cooperation rose around the world. But due to differences in political and economic policies, Northeast Asia missed the surf. More recently though, there has been a rising tide of regional cooperation, and in Jilin, the local government has been the gravitational pull behind it.

Jilin Province is part of China's old industrial base, and it remains the country's main grain base. Liu Naiji, chief of the event's information and publicity department, said, “The province's main industrial advantages lie in auto parts production and agricultural products processing. From these aspects, its prospects for cooperation with neighboring countries and regions in Northeast Asia are very broad indeed.”

FAW Group, located in Changchun, is the largest auto manufacturer in China. It produces more than one million vehicles a year. Thus Jilin Province currently has more than 200 large and medium-sized auto parts makers, including many world-renowned auto parts manufacturers. One out of seven workers in Jilin provincial capital Changchun is employed in the auto industry.

In May 2006, South Korean tire manufacturer Kumho Tires Company started a project to build a plant with the capacity to produce 3.15 million radial tires a year in Changchun. With an investment of US $150 million, the project is South Korea's first large-scale investment in Jilin. According to a local government official, “Many more small and medium-sized companies from South Korea have followed Kumho to Jilin.”

Agricultural products processing has become another pillar industry in Jilin. Corn, beans, livestock, poultry and Changbai Mountain organic foods are all processed in plants there. And a number of large corn processing plants are shifting their business towards the bio-energy, bio-chemicals and biomaterials fields.

Tumenjiang Prefecture is a pioneer in promoting economic cooperation in Northeast Asia. Located at the center of Northeast Asia, the prefecture boasts numerous natural harbors and rich natural and human resources. It is the perfect hub for the Korean Peninsula, the Far East and Siberia Region of Russia, North China and Northeast China, Mongolia and Japan, as well as west coast of the United States. Its special geographical location facilitates international cooperation in Northeast Asia.

In October 1991, the United Nations Deveopment Program announced at the UN headquarters in New York that it planned to invest US $30 billion over 20 years in the construction of a multinational economic and technological development zone in Tumenjiang Prefecture, making it a global trade and logistics center linked to the huge industrial development plan. Northeast Asia, let the good times roll.