Rangitikei Mayor Andy Watson will travel to Melbourne in an attempt to attract Chinese money to the district.
Mr Watson will make the trip alongside Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith to present at the Australasian China Cities business forum later this month.
The mayors will have access to up to 700 Chinese business people and politicians. Following that, 50 Chinese delegates will come to New Zealand for two days to be hosted by the Rangitikei District and Palmerston North City councils where they will attend a business breakfast and talk to Manawatu-Wanganui business people.
Mr Watson said he had been in talks with Chinese companies for more than a year about partnerships with Rangitikei businesses and the Melbourne trip had come from that.
"We started engaging with China and progress was reasonably slow but it's heated up in the last few weeks," he said.