Borough business bosses played host to a visiting delegation from China on Monday.
Basingstoke council leader Andrew Finney and Geoff French, boss of URS Scott Wilson and chairman of the Enterprise M3 partnership, met members of the Wenzhou Municipal Committee from Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai.
The six-strong delegation included deputy chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Gao Yuting and deputy secretary of the municipal committee Huang Zongke.
The aim of the meeting was to forge future economic links with the borough.
The visitors were shown a video promoting the strengths of Basingstoke and championing the town as an ideal hub for Chinese investment.
Cllr Finney said the meeting proved fruitful and that he was excited about the future.
He said: “The meeting was about putting Basingstoke on the world map. We gave an overview of what it is like to live, play, work and do business here and how we are really at the heart of the south east economy.”
Earlier this month, business leaders welcomed the announcement that the borough council had appointed Muse Developments to spearhead the revamp of ageing business park Basing View.
And the borough council is taking a leading role in developing the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which aims to bring together businesses from east Hampshire, Surrey, Hart and other parts of Hampshire.
Mr French said: “The representatives are over to look at parts of the UK to see where they would like to establish businesses or make investments. Our interest was to show them the good things there are here.
“For an initial meeting, it went as well as could be expected. The group are very pragmatic and, therefore, it will depend which areas show them the best combination of plus points for investment.”
