DEL.ICIO.USDelta's first non-stop flight to country launches important trade mission Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/28/08
This is the week that Georgia rolls out the red carpet for the People's Republic of China, a communist country with a roaring free-market economy that could mean big bucks for metro Atlanta and the entire Southeast.
A high-profile trade delegation that includes Gov. Sonny Perdue and about 40 state business leaders leaves for China Sunday aboard Delta Air Lines' inaugural non-stop flight from Atlanta to Shanghai, China's booming business center and the Asian equivalent of New York City.
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The trip is historic for several reasons. It is Delta's first non-stop flight to China in the airline's 79-year history. It is the only non-stop flight to China from the Southeast, and one of just a handful in the nation. Georgia will open an economic development office in China during the weeklong visit. And the trade-diplomatic mission could accelerate the push to locate a Chinese consulate in metro Atlanta, where 50,000 Chinese live.
"It will be the most important trade mission we do," said Ken Stewart, state Commissioner of Economic Development and one of the trip delegates.
"We're basically debuting Georgia in China."
The trip takes place just as China has come under renewed criticism from human rights activists for its crackdown on unrest in Tibet, which has seen its worst outbreak of anti-Chinese violence in 20 years. The Chinese government has blamed the Dalai Lama for inciting the unrest. Many human rights groups believe Tibet should be an independent state, not subjected to Chinese rule.
Despite the unrest, Georgia and other states are eager to tap into the world's fastest growing economy.
Georgia arrives somewhat late in the country. Twenty-eight states already operate economic development offices in China, where a rapidly growing middle class — estimated to be 400 million people in the nation of 1.3 billion — provides a tantalizing target for U.S. companies. Rapidly expanding Chinese companies, meanwhile, hold out the promise of investment and jobs for the U.S.
The daily, non-stop Atlanta-to-Shanghai flight alone could have a $387 million impact on the Southeast, according to one study.
"We're really at the beginning edge of a lot of investment coming out of China," said Hans Gant, senior vice president for economic development for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. "Hundreds of billions of dollars will be invested over the next few years all over the world.
"Our job is to connect Georgia to those 1.3 billion customers and to position Atlanta and Georgia as one of the primary gateways for Chinese investment into the United States."
'Wave of big Chinese investment'
Some Atlanta-based companies like Coca-Cola and UPS have been doing business in China for years. John Portman and Associates, an Atlanta architectural and engineering firm, has had an office in Shanghai since 1992 and has built dozens of China's best-known buildings.
There also has been some recent Chinese investment in Georgia, a trend the trade mission hopes to accelerate. Sany Heavy Industry, which manufactures concrete pumper trucks, has invested $30 million in a Peachtree City facility that will initially create 200 jobs and eventually as many as 600. General Protecht, which makes electric plugs, has invested $30 million in Barnesville in a venture that could create 240 jobs. And Kingwasong is operating a $15 million plant in Coweta County that manufactures restaurant condiments and could eventually employ 200 people.
The Southeast region had about $10 billion in air-cargo trade with China in 2006, and about $1.4 billion of that was from Georgia, according to statistics compiled by Delta. China, according to that study, was the second-fastest growing export market for Georgia companies. China and Hong Kong account for about 40 percent of the shipping containers coming into Savannah.
"The wave is coming, the wave of big Chinese investment," the chamber's Gant said.
The state's latest push to burnish business relations with China could translate into huge payouts over the next decade or so, officials say, though no one talks in specific projections.
"I call it the new Georgia-China century, and this is where it begins," said Lani Wong, who chairs the Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Chinese Americans. "It's a new beginning for investment and trade and cultural exchanges."
Gant, who will be on the trip, said that every time a Chinese company locates in Georgia it has a cascading impact on other businesses. He said the chamber is talking with about a dozen companies interested in locating here. He expects that number to grow many times over once the state opens its economic development office in Beijing this week.
"Every time you have one of these companies come to Georgia, they will be buying services," he said. "They need legal services, accounting services, marketing services, design and engineering services, real estate services. All of that creates indirect job growth."
Some officials compare the current outreach to China with similar efforts directed at Japan three decades ago, when that country's economy was just beginning to roar. Today, Gant said, there are 350 Japanese companies doing business in the metro area.
"And China is a lot bigger than Japan," he said.
— Staff writer Dan Chapman contributed to this story.
BY THE NUMBERS
400: Number (in millions) of dollars the new route could mean to the Southeast
1.3: Number (in billions) of people who live in the People's Republic of China.
20: Percent of the world's population that lives in China.
4.5: Percent of the world's population that lives in the U.S.
12: Number (in millions) of residents in metro Shanghai.
15: Rank of Shanghai worldwide on list of the largest urban areas
69: Rank of Atlanta worldwide on list of the largest urban areas
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