ChinaWeek & China Provinces and US California Business Summit Kicks off in Los Angeles

 China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export for Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), the Chinese Secretariat of China Provinces and US California Joint Working Group, led a trade delegation of 130 members to US California for promoting Sino-US economic and trade cooperation and strengthening economic communications between Chinese and American enterprises. The delegation attended the California-China Business Summit held on Wednesday, May 11.in Los Angeles, where they met their US counterparts.

Chinese Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Guangdong provinces, as the members of the Joint Working Group, rendered adequate support by organizing local enterprises to participate in the summit, which was jointly held by US California Governor’s office and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Regional Export Council (LARExC). The summit boasted more than 350 attendees, including Chinese Consul General Liu Jian in Los Angles, California Governor Jerry Brown, CCCME Vice President Liu Chun presented at the summit and addressed opening remarks.
   Consul General Liu Jian expressed his confidence in China's economy when he spoke at the event. With high expectations for China's continuous development this year, Liu said that 2016 marked the beginning of China's 13th Five-Year Plan, which would help put China's growth on a more solid foundation and create opportunities for sustainable development in the long run.

The business forum was held under the framework of a China-California joint working group on trade and investment cooperation, which was established three years ago as the first working group to build a close economic partnership between one U.S. state and some Chinese provinces.  In the past three years since the framework of China Provinces-US California Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment Cooperation was founded in 2013, Chinese enterprises have invested in more than 300 new projects, almost half of the total Chinese-invested projects in California.

    California Governor Jerry Brown pointed out the interdependency that China and US now have. China’s sustained economic growth and prosperity are beneficial to both sides. California and China shall make joint efforts for promoting pragmatic cooperation in potential fields, such as energy, science and technology, environmental protection, transportation and entertainments.

CCCME Vice President Liu Chun acknowledged the significance of ChinaWeek activities and introduced the background of the delegation. She also said that CCCME would intensify its cooperation with its US Secretariat of the Joint Working Group, to establish a more convenient and regular exchange platform for both sides, to build up a bilateral project pool for enterprises, thus optimizing the Joint Working Group Mechanism in a comprehensive and extensive way.

During the summit, five Chinese members of the JWG briefly introduced regional business overview and their expectations on future cooperation with US enterprises. In the breakout session, China’s NetEase Kaola, BlueFocus International and America’s Milken Institute and Orb Media Group shared their successful experience with the attendees on the topics of foreign direct investment in California, cross-border business, new-normal of Sino-US trade.

Moreover, during the match-making session, over 70 Chinese enterprises conducted more than 3-hour discussion with over 100 American enterprises on key sectors stated in the MOU, covering the sectors of infrastructure, energy conservation, e-commerce and innovative industries.

California, the principal trade gateway between the United States and China, has been a key beneficiary of China's economic growth, not only because of China's major market for the state but also because of its increasing investment, according to a whitepaper by the Milken Institute.

California has benefited in a major way, seeing Chinese FDI in the state rise from less than $100 million in 2005 to more than $9 billion in 2015, according to the whitepaper.

North American captures only 5 percent of foreign FDI outflow from China, which means California is well positioned to capture a significant increase of Chinese investment in more sophisticated areas such as technology and real estate development.