A delegation from Zhejiang province to Japan. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

A delegation led by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce embarked on a six-day business trip to Germany and France on Dec 6, local media outlets reported.

The delegation comprised public servants from provincial departments as well as local foreign trade enterprise representatives. They will attend exhibitions on food ingredients and healthy raw materials and carry out negotiations with their European counterparts.

"We hope that government departments will take the lead in going global and send a more positive signal to enterprises, so that they will be more confident and willing to take the initiative to go overseas and seize more opportunities to compete and cooperate with their international counterparts next year," said Li Lin, head of the delegation.

She mentioned that early investigations showed that many local enterprises were apprehensive about going global and thus insisted that the government should take the lead.

Zhejiang Huakang Pharmaceutial Co, who has its marketing arm based in Hangzhou, was represented in the delegation.

"We are heading for Fi Europe this time, one of the largest exhibitions for food ingredients. We haven't been able to attend in three years," said Xu Jian, manager of the company's international business department.

Zhejiang is planning to organize more overseas trips in the near future, aiming to attract over 10,000 local enterprises.

A Zhejiang businessman talks with his foreign counterpart at a production plant. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]