THE State Council has approved the country's 19th bonded zone in the northeastern Jilin Province, which is expected to boost cross-border trade in Northeast Asia.

Zhang Huanqiu, head of the Changchun Economic and Technology Development Zone management committee, said yesterday that the Changchun Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Zone near Jilin capital Changchun would open in 2012.

Zhang said the zone would make use of the country's most favorable policies for ports and export processing zones to boost the logistics flow in especially North Korea, Russia and Japan.

It would emphasize the manufacturing of automotive electronics and spare parts of transit equipment as well as module assembling, he said.