Liverpool City Council, together with Invest Liverpool and Liverpool China Partnership, will be leading an 22-strong business mission to Shanghai from April 15 to 20. Tony McDonough reports

A 22-strong business delegation from Liverpool is heading to Shanghai to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the twinning of the two cities.

Liverpool City Council, together with Invest Liverpool and Liverpool China Partnership (LCP), will be leading an outbound business delegation to Shanghai from April 15 to 20.

LCP was formed in 2015 by Invest Liverpool and city region partners with the aim to expand, strengthen and deliver greater benefit from the Merseyside and Isle of Man’s business links with China.

Over the past 20 years Liverpool has forged commercial, cultural and academic ties with the huge Chinese municipality which is home to more than 26m people. Highlights of the relationship over the past 20 years, include:

• Liverpool was the only UK city to have a pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
• In 2015, one of Liverpool’s oldest companies, metals warehousing firm Henry Bath, received an equity investment worth more than more than £45m from China and consequently set up a warehouse in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
• Liverpool-based Colloids established manufacturing and research facilities in Changshu near Shanghai in 2016.
• Shanghai headquartered Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) secured a £100m deal to provide five 92 metre-high cranes to Peel Ports in 2014, followed by an additional £180m contract in 2015 to provide cranes to Liverpool2. ZPMC now has a permanent office in Liverpool.
• In 2018, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) set up the first LJMU China Centre in Shanghai.

To celebrate the milestone year, Liverpool and its city region partners have planned a series of special events including the April delegation, attendance at the China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair and the Shanghai Week & Shanghai Film Festival in Liverpool in October.

The business delegation will gain exclusive access to senior decision makers in Shanghai from across government, business and academia. Liverpool Deputy Mayor of Liverpool, Gary Millar, will lead the delegation on behalf of Mayor Joe Anderson.

He said: “I know first-hand that there is a genuine special relationship between our two great cities going back not just 20 years but almost 200 years. 2019 promises to be a great opportunity to cement existing relationships and build for a golden future”.

“We see this sizeable outbound business delegation as a fantastic platform to further develop on these partnerships and to support those bold explorers to take their next steps in seeking out new investment opportunities.”