The coastal city of Weihai, Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to facilitate trade and business cooperation with Japan, said local officials.

The Weihai-Japan Economic and Trade Fair, which was part of the Japan Special of the "Connecting Shandong with Fortune Global 500" event, was held on Oct 27 via online and offline channels.

The Weihai-Japan Economic and Trade Fair is held on Oct 27 via online and offline channels. [Photo/iqilu.com]

More than 150 guests attended the event, including heads of the Japanese Consulate General in Qingdao, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Qingdao and other Japanese organizations in China, as well as representatives of Japanese companies and trade associations such as SoftBank, Hitachi, Itochu, Mitsubishi and Mizuho.

During the event, Zhang Haibo, Party secretary of Weihai, had talks with senior managers from the Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company Softbank and Hitachi Solutions, a leading provider of global industry solutions, via video conferencing.

Zhang Haibo, Party secretary of Weihai, delivers a speech at the event. [Photo/whnews.cn]

Zhang expressed his appreciation to the enterprises for their long-term contributions to Weihai's development.

"As Global Fortune 500 companies, SoftBank and Hitachi have advanced technologies and products in communication technology, semiconductor and e-commerce, medical equipment, industrial machinery and components, functional materials and other fields, with many converging points with Weihai's industrial development," said Zhang, expressing hope that the event would facilitate more cooperation opportunities.

Igawahara Masaru, consul-general of the Japanese consulate in Qingdao, delivers a speech at the event. [Photo/whnews.cn]

In his speech, Igawahara Masaru, consul-general of the Japanese consulate in Qingdao, said that since China's reform and opening up, Weihai has been actively cooperating with Japanese institutions and enterprises and carrying out extensive economic and trade exchanges.

"In particular, the opening of the Weihai-Osaka freight route in September this year has further deepened bilateral exchanges and trade ties," he said. "I hope both sides will take this event as an opportunity to promote cooperation in more areas and achieve win-win results."

Weihai and Japan are highly suitable industrial development partners due to their close proximity and cultural affinity. The two sides maintain close cooperative relations in many fields, including investment and trade, cross-border e-commerce, and service trade.

To date, a total of 120 Japanese companies have invested in Weihai and 1,227 local companies have trade relations with Japan.

From January to August this year, imports and exports between Weihai and Japan were valued at 10.52 billion yuan ($1.57 billion), up 9.6 percent year-on-year.