A delegation from Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province started a business trip to Germany and France on Dec 8, in a bid to bring more businesses to the city.

The two destinations are the first stops of Taicang's campaign to "send 1,000 business delegations and 10,000 companies to explore the international market". The delegation is China's first business team to travel abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Through such government-led business trips, it is hoped that companies will be more upbeat about their growth prospects and more willing to go abroad and communicate with international counterparts, according to Liu Limin, director of Taicang bureau of commerce.

Over 200 representatives of foreign-trade companies and governments at different levels in Taicang will visit more than 15 Fortune Global 500 companies in France and Germany for the first time in three years.

"All the foreign-trade companies said that they cannot wait to communicate with their clients," said Liu.

The team will participate in over 20 activities in the two countries, including visiting multinational firms, attending investment promotions and meeting with financial institutions and chambers of commerce.

Taicang is currently home to more than 460 German-invested companies, and its trade with Germany totaled $14.8 billion in 2021, up 33.9 percent year-on-year and accounting for more than 6 percent of China's total trade with the nation.

The city also has a number of French-invested companies. Taicang's trade with France — which reached $4.42 billion last year, a 22.1 percent year-on-year increase — accounts for more than 5 percent of China's total with the country.