Suzhou charters flights to France, Germany for trade-economic activities

NANJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Flight MU7149, carrying a trade-economic delegation from the city of Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, departed the provincial capital Nanjing at around 1 a.m. Friday, heading for Paris.

The delegation comprises more than 200 people, half of whom are from the investment teams of Suzhou's districts and counties and the others are executives of foreign trade enterprises.

Led by the Suzhou municipal bureau of commerce, the delegation plans to conduct exchanges with many Global Fortune 500 companies, global industry leaders, and well-known international financial institutions in France and Germany. A series of promotion conferences are also expected to be held in the two countries.

The move came after China announced 10 prevention and control measures on Dec. 7, aiming to help foreign trade enterprises get more orders and attract investment.

China has been Germany's most important trading partner for six years, and France is China's third largest trading partner in the European Union.

In 2021, Suzhou's trade with Germany totaled more than 14.81 billion U.S. dollars, up 33.9 percent year on year, accounting for more than 6 percent of China's total trade with Germany. Suzhou now has over 130 French-funded enterprises and the city's actual use of French capital reached 1.04 billion U.S. dollars.

"Face-to-face visits and negotiations are conducive to narrowing the distance between Suzhou and European economic and trade institutions and well-known enterprises," said Sun Jianjiang, director of Suzhou municipal bureau of commerce. "The trip can help expand new orders and attract new projects."

Gu Li, general manager of Jiangsu Changjiang Paper Co., Ltd., brought three pieces of luggage, the two heaviest of which were new paper products designed by the company.

"Export business accounts for about 70 percent of our company's total business and I hope to seize this opportunity to get more new orders in Europe," Gu said.

Suzhou's Lexy Electric Co., Ltd. has 13 people on board this time. After getting off the plane, they will be divided into several groups to visit customers in 10 European countries.

"We hope to run faster and visit more customers," said Han Lifen, head of the overseas sales department of the company.