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East China's coastal city of Yantai in Shandong Province will hold a forum on tourism cooperation between Asia and Europe on Oct. 12 to 15, organizers said Monday.

The forum, with the theme of "developing tourism, boosting investment, and enhancing cooperation," is jointly organized by China's Ministry of Commerce, National Tourism Administration, the Shandong provincial government, and Yantai municipal government.

It aims to enrich the partner relationship between Asia and Europe, promote the growth of investment and trade, and achieve common development and prosperity among all Asian and European countries, an official with the Yantai municipal government said.

In addition to the forum, a tourism exhibition, a trade and investment fair, and a string of cultural activities will be staged during the period, the official said.

The forum is organized within the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

The ASEM was launched in 1996 as a forum for informal dialogue between the heads of states and governments in Asia and Europe to exchange views on issues of mutual concern, at the initiative of Singapore.

It consists of 39 members, including 13 Asian countries and regions such as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and 25 European countries such as France, Germany and Britain.

Under the ASEM framework, dialogue and exchanges have been conducted in the political, economic, financial, science and technology, environment, judicial, cultural, educational and otherfields.

The Yantai forum in October will be the first of its kind in promotion of tourism and investment since the ASEM was set up.