Progress made in DPRK economic zone

BEIJING - The joint development of two economic zones in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by China and the DPRK is producing positive results, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

A joint steering committee for developing and managing the Rason Economic and Trade Zone and the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone in the DPRK held its third meeting in Beijing on Tuesday.

MOC spokesman Shen Danyang said China's Jilin and Liaoning provinces and the DPRK's city of Rason have seen positive results in compiling detailed plans, setting up managing committees and attracting enterprises to invest in the economic zones.

"Cooperation in some projects has seen preliminary results," Shen said.

A road linking Quanhe port in Jilin Province and Rajin port in Rason has been renovated and is now in use. The transport of cross-border goods through the Rajin port has also begun.

Self-driving tours made by Chinese citizens to the DPRK are running smoothly and a pilot area for high-efficiency agriculture has seen positive results, Shen said.

China and the DPRK have compiled plans for the development of the zones, specifying key industries and creating an industrial structure and direction.

The Rason Economic and Trade Zone will focus on the development of raw materials, equipment, high-tech products, light industry, the service sector and modern agriculture, the MOC said after the meeting.

It will gradually become an advanced manufacturing base, as well as an international logistics center and regional tourism center for northeast Asia.

The Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone will focus on the development of the information industry, tourism, modern agriculture and garment manufacturing, the ministry said.

The DPRK passed and promulgated the Law for the Rason Economic and Trade Zone and Law for the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone in December 2011, Shen said.

"Construction on the two economic zones has entered the stage of introducing enterprises to invest in the zones," he said.

The two sides will continue to make joint efforts to make laws and regulations, make detailed preferential policies, improve construction planning inside the zones and attract companies to invest in the zones.

"Both sides will make full use of their respective advantages and build the zones into models of China-DPRK economic and trade cooperation and platforms for economic and trade cooperation with the rest of the world," Shen said.

The MOC said Tuesday that China and the DPRK will continue to follow the principle of "government-guided, enterprise-based, market-oriented and mutually beneficial" cooperation in developing the two economic zones.

The meeting was jointly presided over by Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and Jang Song-taek, chief of the central administrative department of the Korean Workers' Party.

The Rason Economic and Trade Zone is located adjacent to Yanbian Prefecture in northeast China's Jilin Province.

The Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone is located near the estuary of the Yalu River, a border river that runs between the two countries.