Business associations said Tuesday they are expecting the biggest economic delegation so far to accompany President Moon Jae-in on his China trip next month.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea International Trade Association opened their websites to accept applications from companies who want to join the delegation. This was a change in practice for the KCCI, which usually conducts the process through separate contacts.

The application period ended Monday.

Moon is scheduled to make a state visit to Beijing in mid-December as part of the process of thawing bilateral relations. Ties between the two countries deteriorated for over a year due to China's retaliation against South Korea hosting an advanced US missile defense system on its soil. South Korea and China announced Oct. 31 that they will move on from the contention and put their ties back on track.

South Korean businesses were seriously hurt by China's economic and trade retaliations over the diplomatic spat, especially those that relied predominantly on Chinese customers, such as tour operators, duty-free shops and cosmetics exporters.

"Our plan is to have as many companies as possible participate in the delegation to China, including small and medium-sized enterprises," a KCCI official said. "There is a chance that the delegation will be the biggest so far due to the business relevance of the two countries and the close distance."

The official declined to say who had applied or the number of applicants, since the final list is drawn up after consultations with the government.

Corporate sources expect a number of business group chiefs to join the delegation. "This is the first delegation to China since September 2015," one of them said. "We are expecting the delegation to increase in size, since President Moon is making a state visit."

It will be the third economic delegation accompanying Moon on a foreign trip, following the June visit to the United States and the visit earlier this month to Indonesia. (Yonhap)