TAMWORTH mayor Col Murray maintains "future linkages" for major projects in the region have been forged upon return from another trip to China.
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Cr Mayor represented the Namoi joint councils' organisation, along with Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey, on a seven-day study tour of China, centred on the port city of Ningbo.
The trip was fully-funded by the federal government and was aimed at helping local businesses foster some investment and export opportunities.
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Cr Murray said it had become apparent how important it was to take local business representatives along on these expeditions.
There were representatives from Oldfield Poll Herefords, UNE and Bellata Gold Milling on the trip.
"In the business culture in China, they're very nervous about government people doing business and it has proven a challenge in the past," he said.
"Now we're seeing the real benefit basically coordinating it having the introductions done by government and having the business done by businesses."
This was the seventh trip Cr Murray has taken to China in his mayoral reign and he maintains the city's residents and ratepayer would see a benefit.
"It helps provide future linkages for things like an export abattoir, international freight at the airport and things like the Tamworth university," he said.
"It will unlock opportunities for producers and exporters right across the region, because the current system in regional Australia is not working real well.
"We're not realising the opportunities and this has potential to certainly unlock and ease that."
He said the Namoi group signed an MOU with the Ningbo foreign affairs bureau which was seen as an important step linking the New England North West to the Chinese city which has a population of more than 7.6 million people.
He said it was a large trading centre and home to one of the biggest sea ports in the world.
The council's business trips to China have drawn criticism from the community over the years.
There's no more trips on agenda yet and while he wasn't eager to book in another flight, the mayor didn't rule out another visit.
"It depends on whether the successes of this trip are realised," he said.
"But it's not something I'll be doing by choice, it'll be out of necessity.
"It's something a lot of mayors around Australia are doing because the opportunities are real."