The city of Qingdao, Shandong province presided over a symposium at the Richmond Olympic Oval in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Dec 19, to look for investment in its trade and tourism sectors and which brought in a large number of government officials and enterprise executives.

Playing a major role in the gathering were Teresa Wat, British Columbia's international trade minister for the Asia-Pacific, and Liu Mingjun, deputy mayor of Qingdao, with Liu speaking on economic and tourism development in his city and commenting that he hopes the two cities can cooperate more in energy conservation, environmental protection, tourism, finance, logistics and education.

Wat said she is interested in cooperating with Qingdao's enterprises and strengthening an economic partnership agreement that they signed a month earlier.

Attending the symposium were Cui Dezhi, head of Qingdao's Tourism Administration, and Deng Li, deputy director of the city's commerce bureau.