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Our campaign is a broad, long-term programme that seeks the involvement and support of individuals and bodies, large and small. We have already obtained the interest and personal high-level written support within the Department of Trade & Industry, at HM Embassy in Beijing and at the Chinese Embassy in London.

Within Suffolk, Jeremy Pembroke, the Leader of Suffolk County Council launched the official Chinese Language Suffolk Tourism website at the Suffolk Summit in October 2009. Andrea Hill, Chief Executive of SCC, Eddy Alcock, Chairman of SCC, and Celia Hodson, Chief Executive of Choose Suffolk are keen to extend the campaign further to encompass both business and education.

It is our firm belief that China Friendly Suffolk should be owned and embraced by the people and businesses of our county across both the private and public sectors. It is the small cafés that make Chinese guests feel welcome by a simple menu in Chinese, the individual meetings between business people, and the friendships between school children in our respective countries that will make this ground-breaking campaign a real success on the ground.

We are currently hard at work creating promotional materials and websites in Chinese that promote Suffolk's tourism, business and education sectors. Our next goal is to recruit a full time champion of our county in Beijing, whose job will be to promote knowledge of Suffolk widely within relevant Chinese organisations. He or she will work closely with the Beijing based MD of Yaxley China (who is himself from Suffolk) to forge and maintain key, lasting relationships.

As part of our vision we are offering the opportunity to Suffolk businesses to become official sponsors of the China Friendly campaign. If you are reading this from within a Suffolk enterprise and wish your business’s name to become associated as a key sponsor of the programme, then please click here now to find out more.