Židan and officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology will be accompanied by 37 business people representing 29 companies, on the visit running from 4 to 8 November.

A busy schedule is planned, including two business conferences, a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, the head of the China National Tourism Administration, the agriculture minister and local officials.

Presenting the visit to reporters in Ljubljana on Monday, Židan also announced the signing of several political and business agreements, including a protocol opening the Chinese market to Slovenian dairy products.

A long-term cooperation memorandum will also be penned as a basis to set up a permanent coordination of the group of 16 Central and East European nations and China (16+1) on forestry in Slovenia.

The Slovenian delegation will also attend the inauguration in Shenzhen of a 900-sq-metre sales space for Slovenian wine and food products owned by the Slovenian-Chinese joint venture Alpswine.

Slovenian officials will in addition visit the city's port and meet representatives of technological giant Huawei with "a wish they would open an office ion Slovenia", Židan said.

He announced a visit to the top Chinese agricultural fair in Fujian, which will also feature 19 Slovenian companies in a presentation sponsored by the Agriculture Ministry with EUR 46,000.

A major topic of discussion will be establishing a direct air link between Slovenia's capital Ljubljana and China, possibly initially in the form of charter flights, said Economy Ministry State Secretary Aleš Cantarutti, one of the members of the delegation.

The visit will also be an opportunity to present investment opportunities in Slovenia, including by means of a catalogue of 100 investment opportunities of interest to Chinese investors.

These are mainly major investment opportunities in the privatisation process and investments of the Bank Asset Management Company, the Austrian Hypo Alpe Adria's bad bank Heta and the Slovenian NLB bank, as well as real estate and tourism investment opportunities, Cantarutti said.

Robert Kokalj, who is responsible for economic diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry and will also be travelling to China, pointed to the potential for cooperation not only in trade and investment but also in culture and education.

Židan said that the extra effort invested in boosting exports to China was already showing results, as the food sector exported EUR 4m worth of goods there in the first half of this year, which is up from EUR 1.8m in 2014 and EUR 1.2m in 2013.

He also announced similar visits to Vietnam, Montenegro, as well as to the Grüne Woche fair in Berlin. The ministry is also seeking to open up new opportunities in Japan.

"In selecting the countries we follow the interest expressed by businesses," Židan told reporters.