Beijing (Getty Images)

Victor Hoskins, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, is leaving for China tomorrow with a delegation of other city officials and administrators from several local universities.

Hoskins will head up the eight-member party as it spends nine days making stops in Bejing, Shanghai, and Suzhou, a coastal city of 10 million residents where the George Washington University has a satellite campus. The trip marks the second journey of D.C. officials to China in as many years; last June, Mayor Vince Gray led the city’s first official delegation to the world’s second-largest economic power.

The D.C. delegation is scheduled to meet with Chinese officials and in Beijing, the local chamber of commerce and “potential investors” in Shanghai, and GWU’s campus in Suzhou. Also on the schedule in the capital is a meeting with the China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund with nearly $410 billion in assets under management.

Last year’s China trip, led by Gray, was focused on building relationships with tech companies, city officials said at the time. In a news release today, Hoskins says the upcoming visit will be focused on “securing direct foreign investment,” as well as talking to those tech companies the District government likes so much.

The District government is paying $2,618 on travel and per diem expenses for Hoskins as well as two of his deputies that are making the trip. In addition to the city officials, administrators from GWU, Howard University, American University, and the University of the District of Columbia are also flying out tomorrow.