At the invitation of Premier Zhu Rongji, Chretien is to lead a delegation of more than 600 people to visit Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai from February 10 to 18.

The delegation, consisting mainly of people from the business and industrial circles, will be the largest mission to come to China, and the largest in Canada's diplomatic history.

Balloch said at today's news briefing that the group is coming to China to seek broader cooperation based on the successes of the development of Sino-Canadian relations in the past 30 years. Additionally, this is a move taken by the Canadian government to encourage its enterprises to participate in China's strategy of developing its western region and to explore new cooperative opportunities with China upon its entry into the WTO.

A wide range of cooperative endeavors will be studied by the group, including projects in agriculture, education, energy, environment technologies, financial services, mining and minerals, as well as information and communications technologies.

(People’s Daily 09/08/2001)