• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Kansas Governor Set to Open State Trade Office in China

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Nicholas Jungman, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Oct. 18--Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will open the state's first trade office in China on a nine-day trade mission leaving for the country on Friday.

The governor formally announced the mission Monday in Wichita after touring BG Products Inc., a manufacturer of automotive chemicals that does a booming business in China.

Sebelius will lead a 45-member delegation, which the governor's office said is the largest trade mission the state has ever organized in pursuit of market opportunities in Asia. The group will visit Beijing, where the trade office will open, and Shanghai and Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, with which former Gov. John Carlin established a "sister state" relationship 25 years ago.

The delegation will include state Agriculture Secretary Adrian Polansky, three officials from the Kansas Department of Commerce, including trade division director John Watson, and representatives of several Kansas companies, agribusiness groups and universities.

China has a booming middle class, Sebelius said, representing a largely untapped market for Kansas products "from wheat to widgets."

"It's impossible to overestimate the potential for trade," she said.

That trade has accelerated in recent years. The state's exports to China totaled $210 million in 2004, up more than 20 percent from the year before.

China is now the state's fifth-largest foreign trading partner, Sebelius said.

China is the biggest foreign market for BG Products.

The Wichita company, which makes automotive chemicals at its plant on Kellogg opposite WaterWalk, won the Governor's Exporter of the Year Award earlier this year. BG's foreign sales were up 46 percent in fiscal 2005 and represent 8 percent to 10 percent of total sales, company president Galen Myers said.

BG increased year-over-year exports to China alone 168 percent in its fiscal year ended in September, Myers said.

He said the tremendous growth in demand for automobiles in China is driving demand for his company's products, including motor oils, power steering and transmission fluids, and additives designed to make cars run longer and more cleanly.

Sebelius said China is a unique market, one where visits by government officials are essential to paving the way for business relationships.

Besides the opening of the trade office, the mission's itinerary includes meetings with senior officials in China's central government, an event for Beijing business and government leaders hosted by Kansas, and other networking opportunities for members of the delegation.

-----

To see more of The Wichita Eagle, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kansas.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)

More News in this Category