Patrice Trovoada (left), prime minister of the Democratic Republic of S?o Tomé and Príncipe, shakes hands with Zhang Zhaomin (right), Party chief of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Patrice Trovoada, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of S?o Tomé and Príncipe, and his wife paid a visit to Pingtan in South China's Fujian province on April 15.

Zhang Zhaomin, Party chief of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, met with the two distinguished guests during their stay.

S?o Tomé and Príncipe is an island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa, so the visit to Pingtan, an island city in the Taiwan Strait, made the visiting prime minister feel at home.

Escorted by Zhang, Trovoada and his wife were given a tour around Pingtan's planning pavilion.

Impressed by Pingtan's rapid development, Trovoada expressed his eagerness to strengthen exchanges and communication between S?o Tomé and Príncipe and Pingtan.

He said Pingan had rolled out a series of constructive preferential policies to attract investment, increase employment and boost industrial development, and most of them could also be used for reference in the S?o Tomé and Príncipe's development.