Vice Governor Wan Qingliang announced the start of the consular tour to East Guangdong. (Newsgd.com)

Yesterday, 24 consulate officials in Guangzhou from 16 countries started a 4-day tour to East Guangdong. In the first day’s visit to Shanwei and Shantou, many consulate officials were impressed by the two cities’ good environment and development prospective. Mr. Kiyomi Seno, Chief Consul of Japan in Guangzhou said “Shanwei has very good air and geographical position” and “has a great development potential.”

Group photo, Vice Governor Wan Qingliang and the consulate officials as well as the Guangdong, Shanwei officials participating the tour. (Newsgd.com)

The East Guangdong tour covers the four cities – Shanwei, Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang. The area is often known as “Chaoshan area” and is a charming place with unique folk culture. East Guangdong is not as developed as the Pearl River Delta region and has much less foreign investments. However, it has made much progress in infrastructure, urban and public facilities in recent years.

Many of the consulate officials said this is the first time for them to visit the East Guangdong area, and the area is much different from the world known Pearl River Delta. After touring a high-tech industry in Shanwei, Mr. Kiyomi Seno said Shanwei has a great development potential, as the developed “Pearl River Delta has limited resource to accommodate new industries” now, and the city has very good air and geographical position.”

When talking about the prospective for Guangdong’s international cooperation expansion under the global economic crisis, Steve Lang, Economic/Political Section Chief of USA’s Consulate General in Guangzhou, said the American Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong recently conducted a survey, which shows that most US companies that make investment in the province are optimistic about their prospective and think that Guangdong has a very good opportunity for development.

This is the second consular tour organized by Guangdong government for consulate officials in Guangzhou to deepen their understanding of the province’s overall development and to boost the bilateral cooperation and communication.

Today, the consulate officials will continue their visit in Shantou and move onto the third stop of the tour – Chaozhou.

Consulate officials visiting Truly, a high-tech R&D and production company in Shanwei, accompanied by Shanwei Party Secretary Rong Tiewen and Mayor Zheng Yanxiong, and other officials. (Newsgd.com)

Consulate officials arrived in Shantou. Photo: Shantou Party Secretary Huang Zhiguang and Kuwaiti consulate general Nameer Alquraini (Newsgd.com)

Editor: Yan