Next week IOM Director General William Swing will undertake his
first bilateral visit to China since taking office in 2008.

The three-day visit is at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and will involve meetings with Ministers and
senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as
other IOM interlocutors, including the Ministries of Public
Security, Human Resources and Social Security, Commerce, and Civil
Affairs. 

Director General Swing's visit will also coincide with a
national counter-trafficking workshop convened under IOM's
"Capacity Building for Migration Management in China" project,
which will be attended by over 40 senior Chinese immigration and
consular officials.   

China has been an active IOM Observer State since 2001 and as a
sign of a deepening relationship; the IOM Liaison Office in China
was officially opened in Beijing in March 2007. 

Since 2007 IOM has been implementing the "Capacity Building for
Migration Management in China" project, which is funded by the
European Commission, Italy and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please contact:

Kieran Best

IOM Beijing

Tel. +86.10 8532 5303

Email: "mailto:kgormanbest@iom.int">kgormanbest@iom.int