From May 16 to 20, Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc led a delegation from Ilocos Norte to visit China.

The delegation visited the cities of Jinan and Dezhou on May 17 to 18. They attended a work exchange meeting with Shandong Province, participated in the Shandong-Ilocos Norte Economic and Trade Investment Exchange Meeting, and also went to visit the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Shandong Province Vice Governor Deng Yunfeng met with the delegation. He said that the friendly relations between Shandong Province and Ilocos Norte have developed well. He also recalled that in 2002, President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, then governor of Ilocos Norte, visited Shandong, where the two provinces formally established sister province relations. Since then, the two sides have carried out practical cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, agriculture and education.

With this exchange meeting, he hopes that it will be an opportunity to promote more in-depth exchanges between the counterpart departments of the two provinces, deepen cooperation in economic and trade, investment, agriculture, infrastructure, culture and education, and also strengthen the relations between both sides.

Meanwhile, Governor Manotoc expressed his gratitude to Shandong Province for its help to Ilocos Norte during the pandemic. He also expressed his appreciation to Shandong for the thoughtful arrangement for their delegation.

As this is his second visit to Shandong, Manotoc pointed that the rapid development of Shandong Province is impressive and looks forward to continuing to promote cooperation in agriculture, education, tourism, new energy and other fields, and also to strengthen exchanges as sister provinces and achieve new progress.

The heads of the Agriculture, Tourism and Investment Center of Ilocos Norte and the President Mariano Marcos State University likewise introduced relevant situation during the meeting.

At the same time, Deng Yunfeng and Manotoc jointly unveiled the Shandong-Ilocos Norte Humanities Education Exchange Base. They also witnessed the signing of an agreement to establish a Joint Corn Research and Development Center between Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and MMSU, and the signing of other friendly cooperation agreements between the two educational institutions.

On May 19-20, Governor Manotoc and his party visited Guangdong Province. They were welcomed by Guangdong Province Vice Governor Zhang Xin, and the two sides conducted comprehensive exchanges on deepening cooperation in tourism, humanities, agriculture, renewable energy, ports and other fields.

Moreover, Zhang Xin stated that Guangdong and the Philippines are each other's largest sources of tourism and their cooperation in the tourism industry can further expand.

As such, Ilocos Norte is welcome to send delegation to participate in various Tourism Expo, and the enterprises from both sides are welcome to continue to strengthen docking. It is with hope that the existing cooperation in the field of vocational education will also be deepened and solidified.

On his part, Governor Manotoc thanked Guangdong Province for the warm hosting for their delegation and said that tourism and cultural cooperation is one of the main purposes of the visit. With that, he expressed that Ilocos Norte is rich in tourism resources, but the publicity is not enough, so he encouraged Guangdong enterprises that they are welcome to invest in Ilocos Norte.

Also, he said that Ilocos Norte is rich in wind and solar resources, however the power grid and power transmission and distribution capacity are the main bottlenecks restricting the development of clean energy in the province. So, he urges both parties to give due consideration to relevant cooperation, and likewise said that Guangdong enterprises may consider participating in the development and construction of the port in Ilocos Norte.

Before the departure of the delegation, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Huang Xilian met with Governor Manotoc and his party, where they exchanged views on strengthening friendly cooperation between Ilocos Norte and China. Meanwhile, Consul & Head of Post Consul Ren Faqiang of the Chinese Consulate in Laoag went to the airport to see the delegation off.

The members of the delegation were the Chief of Staff of the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte and office heads of agriculture, tourism, energy, trade and investment, and education.