Shen Mi, Party secretary of Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, met with a Japanese delegation led by Yoichi Ikezoe, chairman of Itochu China, on Sept 23.

Shen extended a warm welcome to the guests before briefing them on the current state of development in Taicang. Shen said that Taicang is strategically located adjacent to Shanghai and the Yangtze River.

He said that Taicang has been consistently recognized as one of the happiest county-level cities in China over the past eight years.

Shen also stressed that the county-level city is pressing ahead with efforts to develop several industries, namely high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, biological medicine, trade logistics and aerospace.

He expressed hope that Itochu, a well-known corporation in Japan, would step up investment in Taicang, and promised that Taicang would continue to support the development of the corporation.

Yoichi Ikezoe said that he began to cooperate with Taicang in trade as early as in 1986, and has seen even more frequent trade exchange with the county-level city since then.

The chairman praised the achievements Taicang has made in recent years, saying that the county-level city is becoming more livable and beautiful, and expressed his wishes to deepen cooperation.

Itochu Corporation was established in 1858 and ranked 65th in the Fortune 500 in 2019. Itochu (China) was set up in 1993 and specializes in machinery, chemistry, metal, information and finance.