Sapporo has embarked on a project with six other Asian cities designed to enable information technology firms to promote vital business exchanges, municipal government officials said Friday.
The initiative constitutes an effort to revitalize the economies of the seven cities involved -- Sapporo, Seoul, Shanghai and Shenzhen in China, Hsinchu in Taiwan, Singapore, and Bangalore in India, the officials said.
Around 100 IT companies based in these cities will be brought together in Sapporo in September in order to exchange business information, they said.
Sapporo's decision to participate in the initiative, which was originally floated by a group of South Korean lawmakers and corporate executives, followed a visit by officials of the municipal government and Sapporo-based IT firms to Seoul late last year.
The visit was conducted at the invitation of the South Korean group.
The first joint venture was launched in Sapporo in April by IT companies based in Sapporo and Seoul.
The venture develops and manufactures equipment for super high-speed communications and engages in the Internet-supported telecom business.