Chinese Embassy Minister visits Lincoln

The Chinese Embassy’s Minister for Economic and Commercial Affairs and a delegation visited Lincoln to see how sister city arrangements have strengthened the area.

City of Lincoln Council Chief Executive Andrew Taylor invited Minister Counsellor Zhou Xiamongt to visit the city and meet key local stakeholders at Lincoln Guildhall.

A special dinner was also hosted at the Guildhall by the Mayor of Lincoln Councillor Patrick Vaughan and Chief Executive Andrew Taylor, where they discussed opportunities to maximise the potential of the City Council’s links.

Guests included senior representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Dynex, higher education institutions, Lincolnshire County Council and the China Britain Business Council.

Lincoln has a long standing collaboration with Tangshan, and the relationship between the city and country was added to only weeks ago when a similar arrangement was signed with Nanchang.

Chinese International Students who choose to study in the city are already estimated to bring in more than £32 million to the local economy each year.

Minister Counsellor Zhou Xiamong said: “We have been deeply impressed by the beauty of Lincoln and its growing connections with China.

“We see strong potential for trade and investment in both directions, especially education, advanced engineering particularly as the ties with the sister cities of Tangshan and Nanchang grow.”

Mr Andrew Taylor added: “I was delighted the delegation from the Embassy agreed to incorporate a visit to the city into their itinerary.

“This gave us the chance to show the importance we place on our relationships with China and what it means to businesses and universities, as well as the city as a whole.

“The Minister has stressed to me that we now have an open door to him and his team and he is particularly keen to talk about the potential for Chinese investment in advanced engineering and manufacturing businesses, especially where there is a research and development capability.”