South Australian businesses will benefit from growing cultural ties with its largest export partner China in coming days when the state welcomes more than 200 trade and investment visitors from our sister-state province of Shandong.

Arriving tomorrow, the high level business and government delegates will experience export produce including food and wine from the McLaren Vale, Fleurieu Peninsula and northern Adelaide. The group will visit the Shandong Province exhibit at the Royal Adelaide Show, attend an Adelaide 36ers ‘friendly’ against the Shandong Hi-Speed at Titanium Security Stadium, and make a regional visit to Port Lincoln.

One of the key aims in hosting the delegation is growing bilateral trade and cementing existing relationships to enable South Australia to tap into the expanding Chinese consumer market and reciprocate recent hospitality extended to a South Australian delegation earlier this year..

Background

China is South Australia’s highest export partner with export value of $2.3 billion, or 19.8 per cent of total exports in the 12 months to June 2016.

The government’s South Australia-China Engagement Strategy sets out how the state can capitalise on China’s demand for goods and services. www.statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/investment/china-engagement-strategy

Quotes attributable to Investment and Trade Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith

The delegation is another opportunity for South Australia and Shandong to work together on shared trade, investment and tourism opportunities, and to further our deepening relationship.

South Australia has a long history of engagement with China, in particular Shandong Province, and 2016 marks our 30th anniversary as a sister-state. This year also marks Adelaide’s 15 year sister-city relationship between Adelaide and Qingdao.

In April this year the Premier led the largest ever South Australian delegation to Shandong, with more than 300 delegates, representing 119 individual businesses. Some of those delegates have since reported an estimated $5 million in export deals and close to 40 new jobs created as a result, and we are expecting many more positive outcomes with more than 700 business connections and export leads worth $50 million.

In July this year South Australia China Southern Airlines reached an agreement to schedule three direct flights between Adelaide and Guangzhou per week, making further connections easier and strengthening business opportunities between our countries. In the year ending March 2016, South Australia welcomed 34,000 Chinese visitors into the state and we hope to increase this in future.