Activities and Events in Chengdu and Chongqing
Day Four – 24th April 2005 (Sunday), 17 – 26 (Degree Celsius)
0700 – Morning Call
0730 – Breakfast
0830 – Checkout hotel, and headed to Hong Pai Lou, to conduct a market survey with car care products, spare parts and accessories. The workshops here were located and centralized in one area, where intended items can be easily sourced.
1100 – Before lunch, a Chinese medication product was demonstrated. According to the presenter, the products have gained some international reputation in the global arena. Quite a number of members seemed to agree with it.
1230 – Headed for Chongqing city, which is about 340km from Chengdu city. It took approximately 4 and half hours by coach to reach there.
1700 – Arrived in Chongqing, the only municipality with provincial status in Western China. It has a population of about 9.6 million. Chongqing is a mountainous city as compare to Chengdu. It limited land has contributed to the many high skyscrapers around the city and seen more congested with many cars and people. Members checked in to the JW Marriott Hotel, one of the five “5 star” hotel in Chongqing.
1830 – Proceeded to the Golden Resort Hotel, the venue for the 10th China Chongqing Investment and Sourcing Fair (CCISF) welcoming dinner. We were greeted by 2 departments’ officers, namely, Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relation Commission and Chongqing International Exchange Center for Economy & Culture. Upon arrival, YB Tan Kok Hong was introduced to all the invited VVIP, he was being seated in the main table, together with the Deputy Minister of Commerce of China. All members were also being invited as guest to participate in the welcoming dinner concerning the foreign investors. We had some valuable exchanges with companies like Siemens, 3M, Erisson, GE, Carrefour, Hitachi, General Motor, Peugeot, Matsushita etc. The dinner was simple yet grand and the ceremonies was very clear and straight forward, which took less than 2 hours to complete the whole process. It was an eye opening session to all members.
2100 – Night tour to Chao Tien Men, a meaningful place to drop by, where two large rivers, the Yangtze and Jialing are meeting at this peninsular tip. The glazing night scenery of Chongqing was amazing, beautiful and worth viewing.
Day Five – 25th April 2005 (Monday), 17 – 27 (Degree Celsius)
0700 – Morning Call.
0730 – Breakfast
0830 – Leaving for the CCISF grand opening, the Foreign Trade’s director, Ms Linda Fang, an officer of the foreign trade department of Chongqing, accompanying us to the venue. We were escorted by the traffic police. Again, in CCISF, YB Tan was among the 43 invited VVIP to witness to grand opening of fair. Immediately after the official ceremony, the fair was open to the public. The 10th CCISF was held from 25 to 28 of April. It gathered a lot of industries, such as machinery, electronics, automobile, motorcycle, instrument, chemical industry, pharmacy, IT and daily consumptions etc. The total booths participated were 800.
1100 – YB Tan and his entourage, En Basir (JSIMC), En Asman Shah (UPENJ), Mok
(Ahli Majlis of Johor Bahru), Teh (SMI’s President) and reporters from Utusan (Zaini) and China Press (Ms Lee) have a close door meeting with Chongqing Vice Mayor, Wu Jianong and the Deputy Sec General (Wang Xuesi). Both parties had a brief exchanged. The Mayor took the opportunity to invite our State Premier, MB, YB Tan and Datuk Bandar to attend the 5th Asia Pacific City Mayor Summit, which will be held in Chongqing in October 2005 to further enhance the bilateral relationship between the Government and Trader and Investors. In return, YB Tan also invite the Mayor to visit Johor.
1200 – Grace, Lim Ah Lek, and Nick Wong were interviewed by the local newspaper for their opinion on how to establish the business and trade relationship in China.
1300 – Tuan Haji Ahmad, CEO of Mutiara Motor, visited a plant in Chongqing and signed a MOU with a local company in Chongqing with an intention to start a join venture business in Chongqing.
1800 – Back to hotel for dinner. As tonight was the eve of leaving China, all members were rushed to have their last grasp in the shopping center, Jie Fang Bei, which is just a stone throw away from JW Marriott Hotel.
Day Six – 26th April 2005 (Tuesday), 17 – 27 (Degree Celsius)
0700 – Morning Call
0730 – Breakfast
0830 – Although today in our last day in Chongqing, there were still be another mission for us to work on. We responded to an invitation by the Jiangjin Government, 42 km away from Chongqing city. Jiangjin have a population of 1.46 million.
0930 – Upon arrival, the traffic escorted us to visit the industrial park. Officers from Jiangjin Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission and Jiangjin Munucipal government Investment Office, explained the key advantages offered to the foreign investors on the two industrial parks, Degan and Shuang Fu. Soon after, we were also showed on the new development of the Eastern Jiajing City center.
1100 – Official meeting with Jiangjin government. The city Vice Mayor, Huang Shaoju, greeted us at the Hotel Jiangzhou. A formal briefing was exchanged between the two parties. YB Tan, assisted by his officers from JSIC and UPENJ gave a thorough presentation on the Johor State environment to the representatives of Jiangjin.
1200 – Lunch hosted by Jiangjin government.
1300 – Due to time constraint, we were rushing off for Chongqing Airport to catch a domestic flight back to Chengdu for a transit to our home country. It was a small carrier with 52 seats. We occupied 80% of their seats. It took 50 minutes to reach Chengdu, Shuangliu airport.
1800 – Dinner at Chengdu airport.
2000 – Home Sweet Home, arrived Johor Bahru at 0230, through Custom Green Lane, courtesy arrangement by UPENJ.
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