China and South Korea formally signed on June 1 a free trade agreement (FTA), announcing that the two of Asia's largest economies would remove most tariffs on imports from each other to substantially increase mutual trades.

In response to the FTA, Liangjiang New Area, a pioneer in Sino-Korean trades in Chongqing municipality, announced recently that it would upgrade its China-South Korea Industrial Park and build a "Korean Town" within the area, hoping to create a better investment environment for Korean enterprises.

The two countries decided to set up the China-South Korea Industrial Park in 2011 to encourage investments from enterprises in both countries. The firms based in the Park mainly operate in automobile, cloud computing and creative industries.

Statistics from the Chongqing Customs show that Korea has already become the fifth largest investor in Chongqing. The total foreign trade volume between Chongqing and South Korea has reached 46.05 billion yuan ($7.43 billion) in 2014, a 290 percent year-on-year increase. As an important trade partner of South Korea, Liangjiang makes up almost 80 percent of the total foreign trade with South Korea in Chongqing municipality. By the end of 2014, more than 60 Korean-funded enterprises and institutions have invested in Liangjiang.

Edited by Mevlut Katik