President & CEO, Mr. Kyle Burns and Ms. Wei Wei Wu, International Trade Specialist, departed on April 18, 2009 for an 11-day trip to three cities in China: Shanghai, Chongqing, and Beijing to promote the city as a destination for Chinese investment.

The Alliance hosted two “Invest in San Antonio” and its surrounding region informational seminars in Shanghai and Chongqing with local collaborative support from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and U.S. Department of Commerce Foreign Commercial Services. The two seminars attracted a total of 73 companies in attendance, which included some auto parts and motorcycle manufacturers, investment consulting firms, Chinese traditional medical company, and more.  During the informational seminar, Mr. Burns and a representative from Port San Antonio shared with the prospects why San Antonio is a great place for foreign investment.  The advantages that were highlighted included demographic information, lifestyle and local culture, the region’s economy, local, regional and state incentives, Port San Antonio, foreign trade zones, the International Business Development Center (IBDC) program and the City of San Antonio’s three CASA offices in Mexico as well as informed the guests about the growing automotive cluster in South Texas and Northern Mexico.  Mr. Burns and Ms. Wu also had meetings individually with six automotive/motorcycle companies following the seminar in Chongqing to discuss more in depth about their products and their interest in investing in the US.

The Alliance attended automotive seminars on logistics and distribution and new green technology being developed in the automotive industry in order to network with local Chinese automotive contacts and to get the latest update from industry leaders.

During the trip, the Alliance had meetings with representatives from BYD Automotive, Brilliance, Chang’an Auto Group, and Southwest Research Institute (regarding its Joint-Venture with China Automotive Technology & Research Center) to share with them about the growing automotive cluster in South Texas and Northern Mexico and the opportunities of investing in San Antonio. 

In addition, the Alliance met with Deputy Secretary General Leng Haidong of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration (CIETAC) and his staff in Beijing.  

The Alliance together with CIETAC discussed the possibility of having an office in the US for the following reasons:

1.  China is now the 2nd largest trading partner with the US.

2.  China is the fastest growing export market for Mexico.

3.  Chinese investment in the US and North America is continuing to increase.

4.  Chinese companies would be more comfortable having CIETAC as the arbitrator for dispute resolution and US companies would likely be more comfortable if CIETAC had a US presence.

Additionally, the Alliance met with Mr. Chen Quan Sheng a member of the State Council, who reports directly to the Prime Minister.  He has a strong desire to assist small to medium sized businesses in China and is willing to assist the Alliance.  He agreed that now is a great opportunity to attract investment primarily because of the following reasons:

1.      Many Chinese small and medium-sized businesses have the interest to expand abroad, but do not where to seek for help.

2.      Due to the current economic crisis, income has reduced drastically for most, there may be a bigger market for Chinese goods which are known to be inexpensive and have reasonable quality.

Mr. Chen provided the Alliance with suggestions and has offered to introduce us to several commercial bureaus in China where we can reach these businesses who have the interest in investing outside of China directly.