Charted overseas trips for Chinese traders to jumpstart international cooperation

Commerce authorities in eastern China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have organized chartered flights to take companies overseas to seek business deals and attend trade fairs.

A trade delegation of over 200 people will depart from Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, for France and Germany today to meet with Fortune 500 companies, industry heavyweights and financial institutions, Securities Times reported on Thursday.

Another group of 118 people will also take a charter flight to European countries to attract investment.

These trips signal that Chinese companies have increased confidence in expanding their footprints abroad with the gradual easing of COVID control measures.

Zhejiang, another major export hub, sent a trade delegation on a six-day "investment promotion" tour to Europe on December 4, visiting Finland, Germany and France. Companies in the cities of Jiaxing and Ningbo have traveled to Japan and the United Arab Emirates, respectively, to seek clients, Metropolitan Express reported on Thursday.

One of the companies participating in the trade mission said that it was important to learn about the new preferences of clients to adjust production promptly.

Face-to-face communication brings great potential business opportunities as customers wish to see and touch fabrics, said Lu Chenhui, a manager with Zhejiang Jiaxin Silk Corporation Ltd, cited by the newspaper.

These export-oriented enterprises will seize the opportunities to obtain more orders and initiatives as China has relaxed travel restrictions, said Yang Yiqing, deputy director of the Zheshang Research Institute, a government think tank.