Guanming Fang QuickTime    Windows Media

The competitiveness of Georgia’s workforce was one of several key factors in attracting a third Chinese manufacturer to the state, Guanming Fang, attorney for law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC, told GlobalAtlanta in a video interview. 

She said that officials with Changsha-based Sany Heavy Industrial Co. Ltd. made the decision to base its U.S. subsidiary, Sany America Inc., in Peachtree City to take advantage of state employee training programs. 

“Georgia provides a really affordable workforce and highly educated workforce…compared to other parts of the country,” Ms. Fang said.

Educational opportunities open to employees in Georgia through governmental programs such as Quick Start, an employee training initiative of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education, were important incentives in drawing Sany to the state, according to Ms. Fang.

“One of Sany’s goals is to become a truly globalized company,” she said.  “In their view being a truly globalized company doesn’t mean having one operation outside of China…To be truly globalized you have to have a diverse globalized management team and workforce, and they think that is one thing Quick Start can help them to do.”

Quick Start develops training programs for the employees of participating companies, particularly manufacturers, in many areas including the business etiquette of foreign companies and working with the latest technologies.  The training program has collaborated with many major corporations operating in Georgia, including Delta Air Lines Inc., Kia Motors Corp. and Procter & Gamble.  

Ms. Fang said that Sany would use the program to develop an American management team for its U.S. operation.

The new manufacturing facility Sany is building in Peachtree City is to create 200 new jobs in Georgia, with the potential to triple that number as it expands over the next five years.

Ms. Fang said that the facility will manufacture the company’s truck-mounted concrete pumps, designed to pump concrete to the top floors of buildings under construction.  If that product is well-received in the American market, the operation will gradually expand the operation to manufacture six different products, requiring a diverse, skilled employee base.

The Quick Start program is one of several factors that helped to make Georgia the top choice for Sany executives during the two-year search process.  Representatives of the Chinese manufacturing company first visited Georgia in 2005 before looking at other states as possible locations.

“Sany really did a marvelous and very thorough search in the United States,” said Ms. Fang, adding that Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina and Texas were all possible locations for Sany’s headquarters.

Georgia won out due to the quality of its work force, the state’s central location in the Southeast and the warm reception company officials received by the state.

“The people (company officials) have been working with are really helpful,” said Ms. Fang.  “They really try to understand the needs of the company.”

Her firm, Womble Carlyle, is helping the company sort out the legal issues involved in starting a business operation in Georgia, such as buying land, hiring workers and complying with federal regulations.

Ms. Fang said that the firm’s role is not merely to sort out legal issues, but to acclimate company officials to the business environment of the United States, and “to help them not only do the things they have to do but to understand why these things are important, why these things are necessary from the U.S. perspective.”

Sany’s establishment of an operation in Georgia may draw the investment attention of other Chinese firms to the state, Ms. Fang said.  The establishment of Chinese companies in the United States is a relatively new phenomenon that she believes is likely to continue as the word gets out about Georgia.

She said that other Chinese companies interested in launching operations in Georgia will talk to Sany officials about the process of establishing a business here, raising the state’s profile overseas.

“I’m pretty certain those conversations would help expose Georgia and help Chinese companies learn about the U.S. from a business perspective,” said Ms. Fang.

Chinese companies are increasingly doing business abroad and establishing operations in many nations around the world.  Sany’s Georgia headquarters will be its second manufacturing facility outside China; the company also has a manufacturing plant in India.

Ms. Fang said that Chinese companies are being encouraged by their government to invest in foreign countries, but are slow to come to the U.S. due to the greater challenges that exist here than in other nations.

“There’s a lot more to be learned for a Chinese company to come to the U.S. and it will cost a lot more,” she said.  She was optimistic about the continued pace and quality of investment, however, adding, “I’m very confident that Chinese companies will continue to come to the U.S.; the largest and best will do so.”

Sany announced the decision to build in Georgia in September, becoming the third Chinese company that is to establish a manufacturing presence in the state.

General Protecht Group Inc. bought 211 acres in Barnesville in May to build an assembly plant and distribution center, and Kingwasong LLC, a joint venture between New Jersey-based W.Y. Industries Inc. and China-based Ningbo Lehui Food Machinery Co. Ltd. is now building a plant in Newnan.

Delta Air Lines announced Sept. 25 that they will begin offering non-stop service from Atlanta to Shanghai in March 2008, strengthening ties between the Southeast and China’s business capital.

Chinese-Americans, 24,000 of whom live in the Atlanta area, are campaigning to establish a consulate in the city.  Chinese citizens living in Atlanta are currently forced to go to consul general Qiao Hong in Houston for representation or help with international travel.