A delegation led by Jiang Jianjun, mayor of Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, conducted economic and trade negotiations in Singapore, South Korea, and Japan from April 17 to 26.

They were invited by Enterprise Singapore, a governmental agency championing enterprise development, South Korea's Kolon Plastics, and German chemicals giant BASF's Japanese subsidiary.

In Singapore, the delegation visited Enterprise Singapore and toured Jurong Island Chemical Industrial Park, exchanging ideas with executives of Surbana Jurong, a Singaporean government-owned consultancy company focusing on infrastructure and urban development, Singaporean urban developer Sembcorp, and BASF (China) Co.

Jiang gave a briefing covering the basic facts, economic growth, and industrial advantages of Zhanjiang and emphasized the city's strengths in location, ports, transportation, resources, industries, and culture in the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in western Guangdong, showing intent in seeking cooperation opportunities in various fields.

As a pivotal city in Belt and Road maritime cooperation, Zhanjiang is building a high-level national comprehensive transport hub, speeding up the construction of a sub-provincial central city, and developing itself as an important development pole in the modern coastal economic belt, said an official of Enterprise Singapore.

She added that Enterprise Singapore attaches great importance to the development prospects of Zhanjiang and the opportunities brought by regional economic growth.

In South Korea, the delegation visited Kolon Plastics and met with its CEO, Yeong-Bom Kim. They also toured the world's largest polyformaldehyde project developed by Kolon Group.

After giving an introduction to Zhanjiang, Jiang expressed appreciation for Kolon Group's "close attention" to and "positive appraisal" on Zhanjiang, and spoke highly of the enterprise's management philosophy, saying that the company's core technology, efficient and advanced technical process, and management experience impressed him deeply.

The delegation visited BASF's specialty material production base in Yokkaichi, Japan and communicated with its managerial personnel. Jiang said the base's strict control of every single step in new material production and operations provides targeted references to Zhanjiang's chemical projects.