The world's biggest economy plays host to the planet's second biggest economy this week, and finding ways to co-operate fruitfully is high on the agenda for President Xi Jinping during his first official state visit to the United States.

At one key event during President Xi’s state visit, 15 top Chinese chief executives will join the US-China Business Roundtable in Seattle.

Some of them are probably better known to Irish readers than others.

Their ranks include Alibaba chief executive Jack Ma, Baidu chief Robin Li, and Pony Ma, head of Tencent, as well as Yang Yuanqin, chairman and chief executive of Lenovo.

There are also the heads of some major state-owned enterprises, such as Jiang Jianqing, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Lu Guanqiu, chairman of Wanxiang Group, Guan Qing, chairman of China State Construction Engineering Corp and Tian Guoli, chairman of Bank of China.

According to the Paulson Institute, the Chicago-based think tank which is co-hosting the event, the roundtable aims to provide an opportunity for US and Chinese business leaders to tap into issues facing the two countries and explore ways to strengthen the Sino-US economic relationship.

From the US side, chief executives from General Motors, Amazon, Apple, Honeywell, Microsoft and Walt Disney will take part in the roundtable meeting.