Wollongong City Council will play its part in boosting international relations later this year, with Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery due to lead a council delegation to China.
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The 10-day trip, which has been "tentatively allocated" in Cr Bradbery's diary for September, would be to establish stronger trade links between Chinese businesses and the council.
It would also reciprocate the many Chinese delegations that had visited Wollongong in the past 18 months, Cr Bradbery said.
He said the trip would likely include a short visit to Wollongong's sister city Longyan and several days in commercial hubs like Shanghai and Yunnan province.
Cr Bradbery said it was culturally important for a civic leader such as the Lord Mayor to be part of any delegation to China, and was adamant the trip would not be a "junket".
"I have been instructed that if I can go it will add a certain level of weight to our desire to do business in China," he said.
"But I want to stress that this has to stack up in terms of economics ... because this council is very scrupulous now in terms of conferences and overseas trips to make sure we get maximum value for our investment.
"It's not a holiday and I'm not interested in going overseas for just civic engagements - it's an opportunity to bring jobs and investment and other opportunities back to the Gong."
He hopes to identify tenants for the Innovation Campus and attract new real estate investors.
"There is a lot of money available for investing in real estate and other opportunities to establish businesses in Australia.
"You won't see it immediately, but these connections are a means by which you are saying to high profile investors - like the banking sector for example - that we want their business here in Wollongong."
The Illawarra's strong education sector would also be promoted, he said.
"The University of Wollongong has already established links with China, so we want to capitalise on that and also Chinese students coming to Australia because one of our biggest businesses is education," he said.
As well as business opportunities, Cr Bradbery said his overseas visit would help encourage more Chinese tourism.
"There's a sizeable section of the Chinese population now who have a sizeable disposable income and Chinese tourism is a really significant market.
"We want our portion of it because we're so close to Sydney and can offer the experience of regional NSW within an hour of the international airport."
The Lord Mayor said he would be joined in China by council staff and representatives of NSW Trade and Investment and Austrade, working closely with the University of Wollongong and other businesses.
A council spokesman said the trip would tie in with the new draft civic relations policy, on exhibition this week.
