U.S. states seek China ties at investment summit

Kristi Tanner, managing director of JobsOhio, talks to China Daily on Tuesday in the exhibtion hall of SelectUSA Investment Summit held in the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo: Chen Weihua/China Daily)

When U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews said on Tuesday morning that the SelectU.S.A Investment Summit had a "powerful start" on Monday, he was facing the huge Potomac Ballroom in the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

In front of him, the hundreds of tables where breakfast was served were sparsely seated. Most of the 2,600 registered delegates were missing, including most of the 150 from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. It was a sharp contrast to the full hoU.S.e when U.S. President Barack Obama spoke in the hall Monday afternoon to promote the government initiative to woo foreign investment into the U.S..

Downstairs, representatives from local governments and bU.S.inesses were bU.S.y promoting their attractiveness to foreign investors in about 100 booths set up in the SelectU.S.A exhibition hall. Some clearly were targeting Chinese visitors, as evidenced by Chinese-language brochures and billboards.

Carl Quinata, from the Guam Economic Development Authority, said Guam is seeing an increasing number of Chinese tourists.

"We are applying for a visa waiver for Chinese tourists and maybe we will have it by the end of the year," he said.

With a visa waiver program, it is expected that some 350,000 Chinese tourists will visit Guam in 2020, compared with jU.S.t 8,939 in 2012 or 100,000 in 2020 if the visa waiver program is not approved, according to a Guam Visitors Bureau brochure in Chinese.

Kristi Tanner, managing director of JobsOhio, a private non-profit organization, said she was proud of the instrumental role she played in getting China's Fuyao Group to invest in a $300 million automotive glass plant in Dayton, Ohio. The investment allows Fuyao to transform a former GM facility into a modern automotive glass plant.

Fuyao has made three investments in the U.S. in recent years, totaling $500 million and creating an additional 1,500 jobs by 2017. Its chairman Cao Dewang, a noted philanthropist in China, visited the booth on Monday.

While touting the favorable bU.S.iness environment in Ohio appealing to companies like Fuyao Glass, Tanner, whose business card is in both English and Chinese, said Ohio is seeing more interest from Chinese investors.