A trade delegation from the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin is in the U.S. northwestern state of Alaska to seek more business opportunities, a week after an Alaska trade mission to China.
The seven-member Chinese delegation from Harbin City World Trade Center in Heilongjiang Province, which began a two-day visit to Anchorage Friday, met Alaska Governor Bill Walker and local businesses at the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. office, the KTVA TV channel reported Friday.
Both sides held round-table talks on topics ranging from commercial fishing, real estate development to airline service and shipping.
Steven Lo, executive director for Harbin City' s World Trade Center, said the delegation wants to explore opportunities with the intent on returning to Alaska often.
"We are, first of all, looking for trading opportunities, specifically in the seafood export, from Alaska to China, specifically from Anchorage to Harbin City," he said, playing down the impact of the current China-U.S. trade frictions between the world's two largest economies.
"There will always be disagreements when you do trade," he explained.
"The Chinese are interested in Alaska. They want more fish. They want our clean air. They want tourism. They want water from here," said Lindsey Whitt, an external affairs manager from shipping company Matson, who took part in the talks with the Chinese delegation.
The Harbin city delegation is scheduled to leave late Saturday. Another Chinese delegation is scheduled to visit Alyeska Resort, a ski resort about 44 km away from Anchorage, this summer to consider some of Alaska's sports facilities to train Chinese athletes for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
