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Symbol

Mascot

Forsythia

Ginko Tree

Dove

Geography

Gyeonggi Province is located in the west-central area of the Korean Peninsula, and surrounds the Korean capital of Seoul. It is bordered to the North by the 38th Parallel, the Yellow Sea to the West.

Capital

Suwon

Governor

Sohn, Hak-Kyu

Landspace and Population

Seoul, the capita of Korea, is surrounded by Gyeonggi Province; the Seoul-Gyeonggi Metropolitan area is home to 22 million people, accounting for 46%of the total population of South Korea. Gyeonggi Province itself has a population exceeding 9.28 million people in 2000, 87%of which live in the urban areas.The population of Gyeonggi Province is expected to surpass 10 million by the year 2003, making it the largest local self-governing body in Korea.The area of Gyeonggi Province is 10,189km2 , accounting for approximately 10.2%of the total land area of South Korea.

History and Culture

Gyeonggi Province became the capital of Korea after Baekje Dynasty (BC18－660) and served as the capital region of the country for more than a thousand years. The current name for Gyeonggi Province was first used in 1029 during the Koryo Dynasty (890－1392). In 1946, Seoul was separated from the province after becoming a special administrative city. On June 23, 1967, Suwon was made the capital of the province. Gyeonggi Province now plays a vital role in the politics, economy and culture of Korea together with Seoul.

         
Folk Village                            Ceramics making

Old city Wall

Economy and Industry

Economically Gyeonggi Province is of great importance in South Korea. In 2000, the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) were US$ 84.8 billion(US$ 8,480 per capita), with an annual increase of 20.9% (2% in 1998 and 23.8% in 1999), accounting for 22% of the national total. The GDP per capita was US$ 9,040, compared with US$ 8176 of the national average. The total export of 2001 reached US$ 29.943 billion and total import was US$ 27.578 billion, accounting for 20% of the national total (22% in 2000). The major export commodities include: computers (accounting for 19.3% of the national total), automobiles (12.4%), semiconductors (12.5%), wireless telecommunication equipments (6.8%). And major import items are semiconductors (21.6%), natural gas (8%), computers (5.7%) and semiconductor manufacturing equipments (5.8%). US, China and Japan are major trade partners. The dominating industries in Gyeonggi Province are knowledge based manufacturing industries (40%), new materials (38%), electronics & telecommunication equipments (45%), precision chemicals (44%), precision machinery (39%) and BT (49%). 98% of the companies in Gyeonggi are small and medium-sized companies, while big companies like Sumsung also headquarters here.

Establishment of Sister Province/State Relationship

The friendly relations started in Jan., 1996 when the Gyeonggi's Governor Rhee In-Je proposed that Gyeonggi and GD develop friendly cooperative relationship with the Chinese Ambassador in Korea. In Aug., 1996, a delegation led by Gyeonggi's Vice Governor Kyoung Sun and on Aug. 5th, 1996, and with Mr. ZHONG Qiquan, Vice Governor of GD signed the Agreement to establish GD-Gyeonggi Friendly Cooperative Relationship.

Friendly Exchanges

Since the establishment of Friendly Cooperative Relationship in 1996, GD and Gyeonggi have carried out active exchanges in high-level visits, economy, culture and tourism, etc. The two sides conducted high-level visits and exchanged civil servants in terms of personnel exchanges; sponsored exhibition, trade fair and business mission in terms of economic and trade exchanges; organized art troupes'visits in terms of cultural and art exchanges; and established regular exchange mechanism in tourism exchanges. The recent exchanges are as follows. Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Children's Palace Choir of Dongshan District of Guangzhou took part in a good-will performance tour to Gyeonggi. GD's delegation visited the"World Ceramic Exposition 2001 Korea". While on the other hand, Koyang of Gyeonggi sent a delegation to attend the the Fourth China International Garden and Flower Exposition in Guangzhou and the Fifth China Flower Exposition in Shunde of GD Province. The two sides had recently reached an agreement to build gardens of its own traditional style in each other's place during 2003 and 2004. Besides, a joint venture fund is to be developed by the relative companies of the two provinces to benefit hi-tech companies.

                  
Imp&Exp Seminar 2000                     Gyeonggi Governor visiting GD

Editor: Wing