TOP Chinese business and technology officials visited the University of Essex.

The delegation which arrived from the Jiangsu Province, included the vice president at Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute He Liwen, president at Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Institute Wang Rong Chuan and the vice president at Institute of Jiangnan University Shan Liang amongst many more.

Essex County Council's trade team Essex International co-ordinated the trip, and the officials were accompanied by Peter Manning from the organisation.

Whilst in the country they had the chance to see some of the state-of-the-art facilities at the Colchester campus including the Bloomberg trading floor in the Essex Business School, research laboratories in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering and Parkside Office Village on the Knowledge Gateway research and technology park.

University vice-chancellor professor Anthony Forster has previously visited Northwest University in China.

He said: "We were delighted to have the chance to talk to business leaders from China who are working across a number of technological fields which are also strengths at the university including data analytics, robotics, intelligent systems and artificial intelligence.

"Essex International is helping us build strong links with Chinese entrepreneurs and the Jiangsu Provincial Government.

"We are confident these connections will lead to new partnerships which will take forward our international mission to deliver excellence in research and excellence in education."