The Trip Begins

Guangzhou (once known as Canton) is the capital city of Guangdong Province -- the heart of China's manufacturing sector. Guangdong has about 80 million people, 6% of China's population, but it accounts for one quarter of all investment and one third of all of China's exports. For each of the past 16 years, it has been the economic development leader among all provinces. IBM and the big software company, Peoplesoft, are among the thousands of American companies with a presence there.

If you want to understand the nature of China's economic challenge to us and the opportunities in the Chinese market for us, Guangdong is a necessary stop.

So it was up early Monday morning to take the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. When we arrived an hour and half later, the delegation was met by Mr. Li Zhenghua, deputy chief, of the Guangdong Province Foreign Affairs Office.

It's noteworthy that every city and province in China has its own foreign affairs and global trade office, instead of depending upon the efforts of the national government. They feel strongly that this has played a critical role in their growing export success.

We met with the general manager of the well-respected White Swan Hotel. Sal Carrera, the County's economic development director, facilitated the beginning of an arrangement between the White Swan Hotel and Westchester's Starwood Hotels to consider creating a hotel similar to the White Swan in Westchester.

Mr. Carrera discussed this project (and another in Jingzhou) with Starwood's Stephen Ho, vice president for Acquisitions and Development, who will now follow up. Mr. Carrera, of course, will stay involved to move these projects along.

We spent the afternoon at Guangzhou Ruixin Technology Company, which provides software development for American companies (including three in Westchester) and also is a major electronic content producer. One of its products is the English-language web version of China News (China's equivalent of the Associated Press) for financial service companies in the US.

The picture above shows facing CEO Henry Luk, from right to left, County Executive Andy Spano, Board Of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan, and Pace President Caputo.

We were struck by how much the Internet has made it possible for his company's staff to collaborate across two continents and to make its employees mobile among its locations. So it has Chinese working at times in the United States and American staff working in Guangzhou at times. But they are all just an Internet phone call away from their clients, who only need to make a call to an extension that looks like it is just down the hall.  

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Tuesday morning we met with officials of the Provincial Government, still very important players in the local economy. Among others was Mr. Chen Jian, the Vice Chairman of the provincial legislature, who had an interesting time comparing his situation with that of Chairman Bill Ryan of the County Legislature.

The officials also reviewed the current state of the economy in Guangdong and the extent of involvement of American companies there now, as well as their expectations for further American involvement and trade. In addition, due to the presence of local television news cameras at the event, this was yet another opportunity for Westchester to promote its companies to the business community of China.

Then it was off to Sun Yat-Sen University, known in Chinese as Zhongshan University. It was founded in 1888, with 40,000 students and growing soon to 60,000. We were told it was the only southern Chinese university ranked among the top 10 in the country.

There the delegation met with several people including University Vice President, Professor Xu Ning-Shen, and Lingnan University College President Dr. Yuan Shu. The discussion was wide ranging, covering both Pace's interests in exchange programs and Westchester County's economic development interests. Shown in the picture from the left are Board Chairman Ryan, County Executive Spano, Asian-Pacific Affairs Director Daisy Yau, Pace President Caputo, Dr. Yuan and Professor Xu.

continue

March 2005 Report by Norm Jacknis, County C.I.O.
Westchester County - China Trade Delegation
westchestergov.com