Presenters and attendees of the China Business Briefing included Henry Yu, managing director of Global Trade Solutions at SunTrust Bank; Terry Morgan, president of Wudang Research Association; Diane Alleva Caceres, managing director of Market Access International Inc.; Jeff Willis, president of China Leads LLC; Rebecca DeShazo-Westly, regional sales manager of Belden & Associates; Doug Westly, consultant with Belden & Associates; Howard Gitten, counsel for Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP and Alberto Bruni, branch manager at JAS Forwarding (USA). Photo by Gail Rockburne.

Opportunities are opening rapidly in China’s hinterland for infrastructure development and, increasingly, consumer goods, according to Jeff Willis, president of China Leads LLC, who participated in the recent China Business Briefing at the World Trade Center Atlanta.

Organized by Market Access International Inc., the briefing focused on opportunities for Georgia companies to export to China and to import Chinese products to the United States.

“I’m a great proponent of opportunities to sell to inner China. There’s never been a better time to sell to China,” Mr. Willis said, noting that the Chinese government is enacting policies to attempt to push development from the coastal regions to the hinterland.

The U.S. Commercial Service has relationships with the Chinese Council for International Trade in many cities in central and western China, and the Chinese government is increasing efforts to support these local councils, he added.

With recent approval for international flights into its airport, the city of Wuhan is poised to be the “gateway for opening up the hinterland,” he said.

But water and power shortages, lack of land for new construction, ports at capacity and transportation bottlenecks in inner China, as well as in much of coastal China, require infrastructure development, Mr. Willis said. Environmental concerns offer “tremendous opportunities” for U.S. exporters, who can also supply raw materials for urbanization, such as steel, iron and cement, he said.

China’s growing middle class will be increasingly purchasing more consumer goods, Mr. Willis added. While purchasing power averages only about $1,500-$3,000 per year in inner China compared with $3,000 or more in major cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, the Chinese hinterland is ripe for U.S. imports, he said.

The best sales prospects for inner China are in infrastructure development, including information technology, software, telecommunications equipment, oil and gas, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, pollution-control technology, airport equipment, building materials, auto parts, agricultural chemicals and plastics or resins, Mr. Willis said.

U.S. exporters should not underestimate the power of the Internet for selling to China, he added. With Internet users increasing from 1 million in 1998 to 123 million in 2006, Chinese companies are using the Internet to look laterally for sourcing opportunities and partnerships within China. And references from existing customers in China are key for growing sales there, he said.

“The outlook for U.S. exporters is very good. There’s a whole new world opening up in China because there is official recognition that China needs to buy more from the U.S. Now is the time to take advantage of the situation,” said Penelope Prime, director of the China Research Center and professor at Mercer University, who also spoke at the China Business Briefing.

The Chinese government’s policy of “balanced growth,” focused on slower and higher quality growth that is environmentally sensitive, is also promoting domestic demand. While China’s current growth is fueled by external demand for its products, this trend could reverse as the Chinese domestic market grows, Dr. Prime said.

Demand for U.S. exports of environmental technology, energy, healthcare agriculture and financial services is expected to increase, she said, adding that the 3 percent appreciation of the yuan each year since 2005 has supported this trend.

Chinese are also increasingly investing abroad, with the government’s official “going out” strategy prompting Chinese companies to invest some $16 billion-$24 billion in foreign markets in 2006, Dr. Prime noted.

Market Access International, along with the Wudang Research Association, is hosting a trade mission to China in June to Beijing and Shanghai, plus Qingdao, a major seaport, and Zhengzhou, a transportation hub at the crossroads of China’s east-west and north-south railroad lines.

The trade mission is to focus on agribusiness, infrastructure and sustainable eco-friendly development.

It will include networking sessions and at least eight one-on-one meetings with company and government leaders in China. The trip will cost approximately $12,000 per person.