A charter plane carrying entrepreneurs and executives from 47 enterprises from Guangdong province took off from Guangzhou and headed for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday morning.

They will meet face to face with their foreign counterparts for business cooperation and trade expansion at the Fourth Malaysia-China Trade Expo 2022, which will take place from Wednesday to Friday.

The China Southern Airlines charter flight was the first to be scheduled by the Guangdong provincial government since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago, a statement by airline said on Monday.

The expo, which is jointly supported by the Chinese and Malaysian governments, has been listed an important event by the Guangdong provincial government to help local companies go global and further expand their market presence in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, the statement said.

Hu Cheng, general manager of Huabao (Guangzhou) Intelligent Technology Co, said the charter flight would help his company win orders at the expo.

"We have negotiated with foreign counterparts online for about half a year, and we are confident of reaching a deal when we meet at the expo," he said.

To meet the growing marketing demand, China Southern, one of China's three major airlines, has planned to resume and increase international flights and further improve its services to better serve the country's foreign trade and Sino-foreign economic cooperation in the months to come, the statement said.