The team led by Vice Minister of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Zhao Yang included Mr. Qio Suda, Director General, Department of Policy Research; Ms. Zhu Huiling, Deputy Director General, Department of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Li Min; Director, Department of Culture and External Publicity and Mr. Lu Haitian, Assistant Research Fellow, Department of Foreign Affairs.

Guyana was the first country in the English-speaking Caribbean to have established diplomatic relations with China, according to the Chinese Ambassador in Guyana Mr. Song Tao.

President Jagdeo said he was pleased with the amount of high-level contact that Guyana has had with China recently.

Guyana and China officially established diplomatic ties on June 27, 1971. Since then, their relations have been concretised by several agreements and cooperation in various areas over the years.

Recently the two countries signed an agreement to provide training for members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in Martial Arts, which will begin shortly.

Other areas of cooperation are in culture, international consultations, and politics, among others.

The delegation was in Guyana to observe and participate in the opening of the "Walk Through Chinatown" exhibition and fair held at the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) in Georgetown Sunday afternoon in observance of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Chinese in Guyana.