Zhejiang – US SME Partnership Week Was Held in USA

Led by Mr. Lv Zushan, Governor of Zhejiang Province, about 200 Zhejiang entrepreneurs and corporate executives of leading Zhejiang SMEs from machinery, electronics, auto parts, medical, chemical, software, textile and other industries visited United States to participate in Zhejiang – US SME Partnership Week that was held in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and San Francisco from October 28th to November 1st, 2010.

During their visit, the Zhejiang Provincial government signed four MOUs with NASDAQ, Wharton School of Business of University of Pennsylvania, F&T Group International, and State of Maryland, respectively, and planned to send 10 Zhejiang firms to be listed in NASDAQ each year from 2011, set up an US-China Branding Product Development Center in NYC, train Zhejiang SME executives in the best business school in the US, and establish a Zhejiang science park in the University of Maryland. Zhejiang SMEs held one-on-one talks with over 800 US company executives in 6 cities, and signed agreements or MOUs worth over USD $1.5 billion.

Over 800 US attendees coming from financial industries, high tech companies, import and export, market development, law, accounting and other industries attended these events. Many ranking US government officials, including Stephen Goldsmith, Deputy Mayor of New York City, Carlos Margarinos, Global Chairman of GASME and former Secretary General of UNIDO, Alejandra Castillo, Deputy National Director, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) of US Department of Commerce, Seth Pinski, President of NYC Economic Development Corporation, Dr. George Wang, Executive Vice Chairman of GASME and President of US-China Exchange Association, Elizabeth Daly, Director of International Business Development of NYC Mayor’s Office, Carmela Mammas, Director of New York Office of US Department of Commerce, Pravina Raghavan, New York District Director, US SBA, Peter Koo, New York City Councilman, Peter Lighte, Vice Chairman, Global Corporate Banking, JP Morgan, Bob Mccooey, Senior Vice President, NASDAQ, Jason Wingard, Associate Dean of Wharton Business School, and many others also attended and spoke at the opening ceremony that was held in Sheraton New York Hotel. Mr. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City sent a congratulation letter. Governor Lv delivered keynote speech at the event. Ambassador Keyu Peng, Consul General, Chinese Consulate General, New York also attended and spoke at the event.

In addition to NYC conference, the US-China SME Collaboration Forum was also held in Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Over 300 attendees from Wharton campus and Greater Philadelphia business community attended the event. Samuel T. Lundquist, Associate Dean of Wharton Business School of UPenn, Carlos Magarinos, Global Chairman, GASME, former UNIDO Secretary General, and Former Minister of Industry of Argentina, Heyward Davenport, Director of Northeast Region, Minority Business Development Agency, US Department of Commerce, David Dickson, Director of Philadelphia Office, US SBA, Tony Ceballos, Director, Philadelphia Office, US Department of Commerce, Lilibeth Hanlon, CPA, GZTY CPA Group, LLC, Frederick L. Whitmer, Partner, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Weiwen He, former Commercial Counselor, Chinese Consulate General, NY, and Professor Ian MacMillan, Wharton Business School spoke at the forum. Mr. Jianming Gao, Deputy Director General of Zhejiang Provincial SME Administration delivered keynote speech.

The event also received US federal government’s support. Mr. Craig Allen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of US Department of Commerce for Asia, Mr. Alain de Sarran, Deputy Director of East Asia Office of US DOC and other US DOC officials, Bean Bridget, Acting Administrator of US SBA Region III, and raking officials from the Office of Secretary Hillary Clinton of Department of State attended the business reception hosted by Zhejiang SME Bureau and held in Washington, DC on November 1. At the reception, Mr. Allen said that he is very glad to see so many Zhejiang SMEs to visit US, and collaboration of two countries’ SMEs is very important for the business and economic development of both countries. He welcomed Chinese companies to do business in the US and do business with US companies. Mr. Zhang Shaogang, Minister Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Washington, also pointed out that Chinese government encourages well established Chinese SMEs to develop business overseas. This time, Zhejiang government organized about 200 Zhejiang SMEs to explore the US markets, and interface with hundreds of US companies. This is a solid and important step towards furthering the US-China trade relationship.

Zhejiang – US SME Partnership Week received wide spread attention from media. Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, China News Agency, CCTV, Sina.com. Netease, SoHo, Phoenix Satellite TV, US Chinese TV, World Journal, Overseas Chinese Newspaper, Xingdao Daily, Duowei Times, Economic Daily, International Business Daily, Chinese International Radio, Chinese News Weekly, American Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, and many other medias covered the event.

Zhejiang – US SME Partnership Week was jointly organized by Zhejiang Provincial Government, Global Alliance of SMEs, US Department of Commerce, and US Small Business Administration, and hosted by Zhejiang SME Administration, US-China Exchange Association and other organizations.